Dr. Christopher Mudry (Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland)
"The route to fractional topological insulators in two and three dimensions"
The integer and fractional quantum Hall effects were discovered experimentally in the early 80's before they were understood to be examples of band and fractional topological states of matter. Surprisingly, it has taken about a quarter of a century to establish a "complete" theory of band topological insulators. The discovery of new classes of topological band insulators suggests that there might also be new classes of fractional topological states of matter. I will report results suggesting that this is indeed so in two dimensions. I will also report on a possible route to the construction of fractional topological states of matter in three dimensions.