Rare quantum state reveals particles with quarter-electron charge

by Nik Papageorgiou, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

edited by Swati Mestri , reviewed by Robert Egan

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Add as preferred source Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain An electron's charge is normally fixed, like a coin you can't break into pieces. But if electrons are cooled close to absolute zero and trapped in a two-dimensional layer under a powerful magnetic field, they organize into a collective state of "quasiparticles" that seem to hold only a fraction of an electron's charge.

This state is known as the "fractional quantum Hall effect." A small number of these states, known as "even-denominator states," have drawn attention because some theories predict they could contain unusual quasiparticles called "non-Abelian anyons."