Browse Physics

Measurement of the Coulomb drag correlation in a two-dimensional electron gas provides a quantitative explanation for the movement of electron-hole packets opposite to the expected direction.

An ingenious experiment has probed the collective response of the quantum Hall stripe phase.

Theorists and experimentalists have long been trying to explain the existence of a fractional quantum Hall effect where it is not expected.

The first experimental observation of Landau levels in the surface states of a three-dimensional topological insulator confirms the levels obey unconventional quantization rules.

The exactly quantized magneto-optical response of a topological insulator is a direct result of the Berry phase protected states on its surface.

The race for realizing Majorana fermions—elusive particles that act as their own antiparticles—heats up, but we still await ideal materials to work with.

A theoretical analysis of recent experiments suggests that a key feature of a topological quantum computer—the unusual statistics of quasiparticles in the quantum Hall effect—may finally have been observed.

By exploiting the concept of particle-hole duality, one can realize a point junction between integer and fractional quantum Hall phases, which constitutes a crucial building block towards possible applications of the quantum Hall effect.

The fractional quantum Hall effect, thought to be special to two dimensions, may also flourish in three, providing a possible explanation for anomalies observed in certain 3D materials in high magnetic fields.

Measurements of the heat transport at the edges of two-dimensional electron systems appear to provide explanations about the quantum Hall state that have not been forthcoming via charge transport experiments.

The esoteric concept of “axions” was born thirty years ago to describe the strong interaction between quarks. It appears that the same physics—though in a much different context—applies to an unusual class of insulators.

Electrons in graphene can be described by the relativistic Dirac equation for massless fermions and exhibit a host of unusual properties. The surfaces of certain band insulators—called topological insulators—can be described in a similar way, leading to an exotic metallic surface on an otherwise “ordinary” insulator.