Quantum Hall Effect without Chern Bands

The quantum Hall effect was originally observed in a two-dimensional electron gas forming Landau levels when exposed to a strong perpendicular magnetic field, and has later been generalized to Chern insulators without net magnetization. Here, further extending the realm of the quantum Hall effect, we report on the robust occurrence of an integer quantized transverse conductance at the onset of disorder in a microscopic lattice model all bands of which are topologically trivial (zero Chern number). We attribute this remarkable phenomenon to the energetic separation of substantial but non-quantized Berry fluxes within the topologically trivial bands. Adding a random disorder potential then nudges the system into a stable quantum Hall phase from an extended critical regime of the clean system obtained by placing the Fermi energy within a broad window in either of the trivial bands. Our results are corroborated by extensive numerical transport simulations as well as the analysis of several complementary topological markers.