Evidence For Fractionally-charged Quasiparticles
Experiments have reported results that specifically support the understanding that there are fractionally-charged quasiparticles in an electron gas under FQHE conditions.
In 1995, the fractional charge of Laughlin quasiparticles was measured directly in a quantum antidot electrometer at Stony Brook University, New York. In 1997, two groups of physicists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique laboratory near Paris, detected such quasiparticles carrying an electric current, through measuring quantum shot noise. Both of these experiments are somewhat controversial.
A more recent experiment, which measures the quasiparticle charge extremely directly, appears beyond reproach.
Read more about this topic: Fractional Quantum Hall Effect
Famous quotes containing the word evidence:
“I believe that no characteristic is so distinctively human as the sense of indebtedness we feel, not necessarily for a favor received, but even for the slightest evidence of kindness; and there is nothing so boorish, savage, inhuman as to appear to be overwhelmed by a favor, let alone unworthy of it.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)