A New State of Quantum Matter

Mingyang Guo, Tilman Pfau

M. Ya. Amusia, Vasily R. Shaginyan

Xiao-Gang Wen

According to the principle of emergence, the properties of material are mainly determined by how the atoms are organized in the material. Such organization is formally called order. The vast range of materials is a result of the rich variety of orders that atoms can have. For a long time, it has been believed that all orders are described as symmetry breaking. A comprehensive theory for phases and phase transitions is developed here based on the symmetry breaking picture. The existence of FQH states (and superconducting states) indicates that there are new states of matter that cannot be described as symmetry breaking. Completely new theory is needed to describe those new states of matter. This chapter outlines the theory of topological order and theories of quantum order for the new states of matter, such as FQH states. Many new concepts and new language, such as topology-dependent degeneracy, fractional statistics, edge states, etc, are introduced to describe new states of matter.

Gordon Baym

Adriano Barenco, M.‐A. Dupertuis

Many quantum states of light and matter, such as coherent states, squeezed states, minimum-uncertainty states, intelligent states, quasi-intelligent states, and symmetric states, have long been of academic interest.1 However, because of the success in realizing and using light squeezing in feasibility experiments, attention is now turning to the realization of more practical light sources. In this paper we adopt a new constructive procedure to look for new states of matter that may eventually permit the generation of squeezed light from new types of advanced semiconductor light sources.

Michael H. Anderson, Murray Holland

The basic properties of a purely quantum mechanical state of matter are described and related to coherent laser emissions. The authors then discuss the first experiment to observe this new state of matter.