Key physical experiment: fractional quantum Hall effect.
Quantum version of the Hall effect.
As you increase the magnetic field, you can see the Hall resistance increase, but it does so in discrete steps.
Gotta understand this because the name sounds cool. Maybe also because it is used to define the fucking ampere in the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units.
At least the experiment description itself is easy to understand. The hard part is the physical theory behind.
TODO experiment video.
The effect can be separated into two modes:
- Integer quantum Hall effect: easier to explain from first principles
- Fractional quantum Hall effect: harder to explain from first principles
- Fractional quantum Hall effect for : 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics
- Fractional quantum Hall effect for : one of the most important unsolved physics problems as of 2023
As mentioned on the introduction, the main objective of the course is to try predict qualitative properties of materials, notably the existence of certain phase transitions, starting from first principle toy models.
Key phenomena covered include: