710 Ch.

12 Quantum Hall Effect

The quasihole is not a simple, local object. Writing down the wave-
function of a quasihole situated at <
(12.108)

we find that it depends, in addition to the variable <, also on all the

charge e* is localized within a circle of radius 1. -

electron coordinates as parameters. Nevertheless, most of the excess

Let us invoke a Gedankenexperiment to lend more credence to the

idea of fractional charge [252]. We take the idea of adding a flux quan-
tum literally: let us imagine that the plane is pierced by an infinitely thin
solenoid at <,and drive a flux +(t)through it, whereby +(t)increases
from 0 until it reaches 40.According to Faraday’s law of induction, the
time dependent flux induces an azimuthal electric field. At a distance
R from <
E Id+ 1
’- c d t 21rR’
(12.109)

In the incompressible Hall liquid state, oz2 vanishes, and the current
flows perpedicularly to the electric field, i.e., in radial direction

e2 1 d + 1
j , = oy2Ev= ( 12.110)
3h c d t 27rR a

The total charge which has been transferred towards the central point
C is

Q =SsR/j,dt =
e2 1
%- / d+ e2 1
3h c
d t d t = --.+o
e
3’
=- (12.111)

which reconfirms the contention that fractionally quantized Hall plateaus

must be associated with fractionally charged quasiparticles.
Thinking of the solenoid as bounded by infinite potential walls, the
field inside it is not directly visible to the electrons, and the whole oper-
ation may be regarded as a gauge transformation [232, 3551. However,
for 0 < 4 < 40 it would drastically influence the states whose orbits
surround I , because the change of phase acquired by passing around