Feature

Optical Anyons

E. M. Wright, Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.; R. Y. Chiao, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Calif; and J. G. Garrison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA

Recent developments in theoretical physics have shown that particles with fractional spin, anyons, can arise in two dimensional systems, since the phase accumulated upon exchanging two identical particles can assume any value, thus interpolating between bosons and fermions. Here we describe some of our recent results, showing that composite particles formed from dark-seeking atoms bound to electromagnetic vortices display the properties of anyonic quasiparticles in optical physics.