The nature of electronic charge

The question of anyons and fractional statistics in field theories in 2+1 dimensions with Chern-Simons (CS) term is discussed in some detail. Arguments are spelled out as to why fractional statistics is only possible in two space dimensions. This phenomenon is most naturally discussed within the framework of field theories with CS term, hence as a prelude to this discussion I first discuss the various properties of the CS term. In particular its role as a gauge field mass ter...

One of the major developments of twentieth century physics has been the gradual recognition that a common feature of the known fundamental interactions is their gauge structure. In this talk the early history of gauge theory is reviewed, emphasizing especially Weyl's seminal contributions of 1918 and 1929.

The electron, discovered by Thomson by the end of the nineteenth century, was the first experimentally observed particle. The Weyl fermion, though theoretically predicted since a long time, was observed in a condensed matter environment in an experiment reported only a few weeks ago. Is there any linking thread connecting the first and the last observed fermion (quasi)particles? The answer is positive. By generalizing the method known as bosonization, the first time in its fu...

To mark the 111th birthday of Eugene Wigner, we review topological excitations in diverse dimensions.

This paper intends to provide a theoretical basis for the unification of the integer and the fractional quantum Hall effects. Guided by concepts and theories of quantum mechanics and with the solution of the Pauli equation in a magnetic field under the symmetric gauge, wave functions, energy levels of single electrons, and the expectation value of electron's spatial scope are presented. After the quotation of non-interaction dilute gas system, the product of single electron's...

This short note was born out of discussions on anyons in the FQHE at the YITP workshop "Fundamental problems of quantum field theories" (December 19-21, 2001, YITP, Kyoto). At that time, I felt that there might not be a sound consensus of opinion on the subject. Now, I would like to show my understanding here, the essential part of which is based on hep-th/0110197. The first problem discussed is a notion of ``bosonized electrons (bosonization)", which are unphysical objects...

The present work provides a theoretical explanation for the quantisation of electric charges, an open problem since Millikan's oil drop experiment in 1909. This explanation is based solely on Maxwell's theory, it recasts Electromagnetic theory under the language of complex line bundles; therefore, neither magnetic poles nor quantum mechanics are invoked. The existence of magnetic poles was essentially the only theoretical explanation for charge quantisation (e.g. Dirac's magn...

In Field theories with simple or semi-simple unitary, local or global symmetries, the electric charge is related to a global one. This is the case also in electroweak gauge theories even before the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), where these quantities are defined in order to expand the Lagrangian respecting the conservation laws after the breaking. So, the electric charge assignment within a given multiplet is done (in units of jej) considering only global symmetries, e...

The traditional standard theory of quantum mechanics is unable to solve the spin-statistics problem, i.e. to justify the utterly important \qo{Pauli Exclusion Principle} but by the adoption of the complex standard relativistic quantum field theory. In a recent paper (Ref. [1]) we presented a proof of the spin-statistics problem in the nonrelativistic approximation on the basis of the \qo{Conformal Quantum Geometrodynamics}. In the present paper, by the same theory the proof o...

Mathematical aspects of contemporary classical and quantum gauge theory are sketched.