Is Electron an Anyon with Spin-1/2?

One of the hallmarks of quantum statistics, tightly entwined with the concept of topological phases of matter, is the prediction of anyons. Although anyons are predicted to be realized in certain fractional quantum Hall systems, they have not yet been unambiguously detected in experiment. Here we introduce a simple quantum impurity model, where bosonic or fermionic impurities turn into anyons as a consequence of their interaction with the surrounding many-particle bath. A clo...

In the description of electron spin obtained through the conventional Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the concrete picture of rotation was replaced by an abstract mathematical representation; visualization or visualisability was entirely lost. The work described here takes a step towards restoring this.

One of the more profound mysteries of physics is how nature ties together EM fields to form an electron. A way to do this is examined in this study. A bare magnetic dipole containing a flux quantum spins stably, and produces an inverse square E= -vxB electric field similar to what one finds from charge. Gauss' law finds charge in this model, though there be none. For stability, a current loop about the waist of the magnetic dipole is needed and we must go beyond the classical...

The dichotomy between fermions and bosons is at the root of many physical phenomena, from metallic conduction of electricity to super-fluidity, and from the periodic table to coherent propagation of light. The dichotomy originates from the symmetry of the quantum mechanical wave function to the interchange of two identical particles. In systems that are confined to two spatial dimensions particles that are neither fermions nor bosons, coined "anyons", may exist. The fractiona...

The notion of the spin is shown to have two constituents, as exemplified by the spin of the electron. The first one is related to the form of the wave equation and determines the fermion or boson particle type. This implies the spin taking strictly half-integer or integer number. The second side of spin manifestation is related to the physical nature of the spin of the electron (and the corresponding magnetic moment) in the interaction resulting in nonuniform motion. It is sh...

A simple real-space model for the free-electron wavefunction with spin is proposed, based on coherent vortices on the scale of h/mc, rotating at mc^2/h. This reproduces the proper values for electron spin and magnetic moment. Transformation to a moving reference frame turns this into a wave with the de Broglie wavelength. The mapping of the real two-dimensional vector phasor to the complex plane satisfies the Schrodinger equation. This suggests a fundamental role for spin in ...

The history of the discovery of electron spin and the Pauli principle and the mathematics of spin and quantum statistics are reviewed. Pauli's theory of the spinning electron and some of its many applications in mathematics and physics are considered in more detail. The role of the fact that the tree-level gyromagnetic factor of the electron has the value g = 2 in an analysis of stability (and instability) of matter in arbitrary external magnetic fields is highlighted. Radiat...

The non-relativistic quantum field theoretic lagrangian which describes an anyon system in the presence of an electromagnetic field is identified. A non-minimal magnetic coupling to the Chern-Simons statistical field as well as to the electromagnetic field together with a direct coupling between between both fields are the non-trivial ingredients of the lagrangian obtained from the non-relativistic limit of the fermionic relativistic formulation. The results, an electromagnet...

It is shown that the point charge and magnetic moment of electron produce together such a field that total electromagnetic momentum has a component perpendicular to electron velocity. As a result classical electron models, having magnetic moment, move not along a straight line, if there is no external force, but along a spiral, the space period and radius of which are comparable with de-Broglie wave length. Some other surprising coincidences with quantum theory arise as a res...

A classical circularly polarized electromagnetic wave carries angular momentum, and represents the classical limit of a photon, which carries quantized spin. It is shown that a very similar picture of a circularly polarized coherent wave can account for both the spin of an electron and its quantum wave function, in a Lorentz-invariant fashion. The photon-electron interaction occurs through the usual electromagnetic potentials, modulating the frequency and wavevector (energy a...