NONZERO-TEMPERATURE TRANSPORT NEAR FRACTIONAL QUANTUM HALL CRITICAL-POINTS

In an earlier work, Damle and the author [Phys. Rev. B 56, 8714 (1997) ] demonstrated the central role played by incoherent, inelastic proces ses in transport near two-dimensional quantum critical points. This pa per extends these results to the case of a quantum transition between a fractional quantized Hall state and an insulator, induced by varying the strength of an external periodic potential. We use the quantum he ld theory for this transition introduced by Chen, Fisher, and Wu [Phys . Rev. B 48, 13 749 (1993)]. The longitudinal and Hall conductivities at the critical point are both e(2)/h times nontrivial, fully universa l functions of (h) over bar omega/k(B)T (omega is the measuring freque ncy). These functions are computed using a combination of perturbation theory on the Kubo formula, and the solution of a quantum Boltzmann e quation for the anyonic quasiparticles and quasiholes. The results inc lude the values of the de conductivities ((h) over bar omega/k(B)T-->0 ); earlier work was restricted strictly to T=0, and therefore computed only the high frequency ac conductivities with (h) over bar omega/k(B )T-->infinity.