A composite fermion is the topological bound state of an electron and an even number of quantized vortices, sometimes visually pictured as the bound state of an electron and, attached, an even number of magnetic flux quanta.[1][2][3] Composite fermions were originally envisioned in the context of the fractional quantum Hall effect,[4] but subsequently took on a life of their own, exhibiting many other consequences and phenomena.
Vortices are an example of topological defect, and also occur in other situations. Quantized vortices are found in type II superconductors, called Abrikosov vortices. Classical vortices are relevant to the Berezenskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition in two-dimensional XY model.
- ^ J.K. Jain (2007). Composite Fermions. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86232-5.
- ^ O. Heinonen, ed. (1998). Composite Fermions. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-02-3592-5.
- ^ S. Das Sarma; A. Pinczuk, eds. (1996). Perspectives in Quantum Hall Effects: Novel Quantum Liquids in Low Dimensional Semiconductor Structures. New York: Wiley-VCH. ISBN 978-0-471-11216-7.
- ^ D.C. Tsui; H.L. Stormer; A.C. Gossard (1982). "Two-dimensional magnetotransport in the extreme quantum limit". Physical Review Letters. 48 (22): 1559. Bibcode:1982PhRvL..48.1559T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1559.