A guided tour of the holy Halls

by Alexander Fagerlund

Friday 7 Jun 2024, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Stockholm

Albano 3: 6203 - Floor 6 Large Lunch Room (44 seats) (Albano Building 3)

How do electrons conspire to make emptiness interesting? The quantum Hall effect is a surprising phenomenon related to the conduction of electricity. In certain cases, the electrons of the quantum Hall system form a state of matter where particle-like holes emerge in the electron fluid. These holes can have charge and spin, just like electrons, quarks and other particles can. To begin with, I will give an introduction to the quantum Hall effect. We will try to develop an intuition for it and understand some of its surprises together. Then, we will see how these “hole objects” fit into the picture.  With a bit of luck, we will even see some of these elusive “quasi-holes”! Throughout the talk, I will keep the formalism to a minimum, introducing the concepts we need as I go.