Physical Principles underlying the (Fractional) Quantum Hall Effect
Prof. Jürg Fröhlich (ETH Zürich)

After recalling what the Quantum Hall Effect is and how the history of its discovery has looked like I sketch the electrodynamics of incompressible Hall fluids, emphasizing the role played by the 2D chiral anomaly. I then derive the main features of an effective field theory describing universal features of incompressible Hall fluids in the scaling limit. The role of quasi-particles with fractional charge and braid statistics is highlighted and the quantum theory of edge degrees of freedom is outlined. It is sketched how theoretical predictions can be verified in interference experiments.