Abstract
Charge fluctuations of solitons with arbitrary fractional fermion number in 1 + 1 dimensions are calculated, generalizing the result of Kivelson and Schrieffer for solitons with fermion number 1/2. The soliton charge is measured by a sampling function f(x) such that f(x)1 over a region of width L around the soliton and then falls to zero in a distance l. It is shown that vacuum fluctuations vanish as l-1 for large l while the additional fluctuations due to the presence of a soliton vanish as either exp(-Lξ) or exp(-2Δ0L); ξ is the soliton width and Δ0 is the mass gap of a ground state. This result establishes that the fractional fermion charge is a well-defined observable.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2565-2568 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical Review B |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 1983 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics