Description |
It is widely believed that the answer to the question in the title is in the negative. The exclusion of such a process - tunneling of a fractionally charged quasi-particle through a potential barrier (an insulator) goes back to a "global constraint": the number of charge carriers on either side of the barrier must be (nearly) an integer. We address the issue of a QP tunneling in connection with geometries where this constraint does not apply, point out to the feasibility of such tunneling and evaluate its amplitude. |
Informal seminar on Disorder and strong electron correlations:
"Can a fractional charge tunnel through an insulator?"
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