Phenomenological Understanding of a Transport Regime with Reflection Symmetry in the Quantum Hall System in a Composite Fermion Picture

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In this paper, we present a phenomenological picture based on the composite fermion theory, in responding to the recent discovery by Shahar et al. of a new transport regime near the transition from a ν=1 quantum Hall liquid to a Hall insulator(ref[8]). In this picture, the seemingly unexpected reflection symmetry in the longitudinal resistivity ρxx can be understood clearly as due to the symmetry of the gapful excitations which dominate σxx across the transition, and the abrupt change in σxy at the transition. The parameter α in the linear fit of ν₀(T) in ref[8] is also given a simple physical meaning and the effective mass can be calculated from α, which gives a reasonable value of several electron band mass. When taking into account the result of network model, the almost invariant Hall resistivity ρxy across the transition is also well-understood.