These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Cooper instability of composite fermions.
    Author: Scarola VW, Park K, Jain JK.
    Journal: Nature; 2000 Aug 24; 406(6798):863-5. PubMed ID: 10972281.
    Abstract:
    When confined to two dimensions and exposed to a strong magnetic field, electrons screen the Coulomb interaction in a topological fashion; they capture an even number of quantum vortices and transform into particles called 'composite fermions' (refs 1-3). The fractional quantum Hall effect occurs in such a system when the ratio (or 'filling factor, nu) of the number of electrons and the degeneracy of their spin-split energy states (the Landau levels) takes on particular values. The Landau level filling nu = 1/2 corresponds to a metallic state in which the composite fermions form a gapless Fermi sea. But for nu = 5/2, a fractional quantum Hall effect is observed instead; this unexpected result is the subject of considerable debate and controversy. Here we investigate the difference between these states by considering the theoretical problem of two composite fermions on top of a fully polarized Fermi sea of composite fermions. We find that they undergo Cooper pairing to form a p-wave bound state at nu = 5/2, but not at nu = 1/2. In effect, the repulsive Coulomb interaction between electrons is overscreened in the nu = 5/2 state by the formation of composite fermions, resulting in a weak, attractive interaction.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]