  We calculate bulk transport properties of two-dimensional topological
insulators based on HgTe quantum wells in the ballistic regime. Interestingly,
we find that the conductance and the shot noise are distinctively different for
the so-called normal regime (the topologically trivial case) and the so-called
inverted regime (the topologically non-trivial case). Thus, it is possible to
verify the topological order of a two-dimensional topological insulator not
only via observable edge properties but also via observable bulk properties.
This is important because we show that under certain conditions the bulk
contribution can dominate the edge contribution which makes it essential to
fully understand the former for the interpretation of future experiments in
clean samples.
