12.

3 Integer Quantum Hall Effect 693

about a sharply defined classical trajectory when H + 00. This is the

trajectory along which the cyclotron orbit center is drifting under the
influence of the electric fields. In the high-field limit, the variation of
the electric field over a distance 1 becomes negligible, thus the scalar
potential can be regarded as a function of the classical variables 20 and
yo, and the equation of motion (12.73) can be rewritten as

(12.74)

Similarly
(12.75)

Figure 12.6: Mountains and valleys of a smooth random potential with average
(pdis) = 0. The quasi-classical orbits follow equipotential lines (after [187]).

Let us follow the change of the potential “seen” by the electron as it

is drifting along in the random potential (let us, for the moment, forget
about (Pext)