Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

12 Noon, Friday, November 9, 2001
Room 1201, Physics Building

 The story of the composite fermion

Jainendra Jain

(Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract:  When two-dimensional electrons are confined to the lowest Landau level, they capture quantum mechanical vortices to form new particles called composite fermions. The first part of the talk will give a brief account of the dramatic chain of events that led me to postulate the existence of composite fermions. The remainder of the talk will discuss the consequences of composite fermions, numerous experimental and theoretical verifications, and show how they provide the explanation for the remarkable phenomenon of the fractional quantum Hall effect. If time permits, I will briefly mention several possible phases of composite fermions, including their Fermi sea, paired state, and stripes.
Host:  Sankar Das Sarma
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