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Quantum physics

Wheels within wheels

Nature volume 422, pages 391–392 (2003)Cite this article

Quasi-particles, an ingenious dodge used to simplify calculations on vast systems of interacting particles, seem to account for the fractional quantum Hall effect. But do we now need a further generation of quasi-particles?

Problems involving many strongly interacting bodies are pervasive in physics. For instance, in a cubic centimetre of condensed matter, typically 1023 electrons repel one another and interact with a comparable number of positively charged nuclei. The motion of one electron elicits a response from all of the others. So it is no wonder that the search for an exact solution is usually a desperate undertaking. Ingenious recipes have been developed, based on quantum field theory, to tackle these problems: they identify fictitious entities — quasi-particles — that recast the system of strongly interacting real bodies into a simpler one, composed of weakly or even non-interacting bodies, while still capturing the essential physics. Landau's quasi-electrons — bare electrons dressed with a cloud of positive charge — are a celebrated example that successfully describes the behaviour of metals. More recently, composite fermions1 — electrons in a different guise — have emerged to account in single-particle terms for the fractional quantum Hall effect2, an electron–electron correlation phenomenon par excellence. Pan et al.3 now report in Physical Review Letters that the story goes on: apparently, residual interactions among these composite fermions produce a second generation of composite fermions.

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Figure 1: The Hall effect.

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  1. the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Physics, Heisenbergstrasse 1, Stuttgart, D-70569, Germany

    Jurgen H. Smet

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  1. Jurgen H. Smet
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Correspondence to Jurgen H. Smet.

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Smet, J. Wheels within wheels. Nature 422, 391–392 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/422391a

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