Anyons

Abstract

An elementary introduction is given to the concept of anyons—quantum particles whose ‘statistics’ interpolate smoothly between those of bosons and fermions. Such particles—or quasi-particle excitations—can occur in two-dimensional systems in which the particles experience strong short-range mutual repulsions. These circumstances effectively mean that one has to apply quantum mechanics to a configuration space in which some points are excluded (i.e. it has ‘holes’)—namely, those points where two particles would coincide. The Aharonov—Bohm effect provides the simplest physical example of quantum mechanics in such a non-simply connected space, and is also fundamental to a simple model for anyons. A qualitative introduction is given to two currently proposed physical applications of anyons: high temperature superconductivity, and the (fractional) quantum Hall effect.