Panel discussion with Duncan Haldane (Princeton), Michael Manfra (Purdue) and Gwendal Feve (ENS)

The possibility of particles with fractional statistics intermediate between those of fermions and bosons in two dimensional systems was raised as early as 1976 in theoretical work by Leinaas and Myrheim and independently by Wilczek. In the context of the quantum hall effect the existence of such anyons was proposed by Arovas, Wilczek and Schrieffer and Halperin and analyzed by Haldane who gave a distinct formulation of the idea. While by 1984 theorists were convinced that such particle existed in quantum hall systems, their actual observation has only recently become a reality in landmark experiments by groups of Manfra and Feve. Our panelists will discuss this intellectual history and the experiments and the status of the broader set of searches for particles with fractional statistics, especially those with non-Abelian statistics.

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