Emergence of Spin-Half Fermion Vortices and The Vortex Metal

Abstract

This paper has been withdrawn and replaced by a new version entitled "Vortex quantum dynamics of two dimensional lattice bosons" By Netanel H. Lindner, Assa Auerbach, Daniel P. Arovas, posted in arXiv:0810.2604. The calculations and results of the original manuscript were correct, and lead to several important conclusions about vortex dynamics and Hall conductance. However, we have dropped our conjecture, that vortices exhibit mutual Fermi statistics. The conjecture was based on the antisymmetry under exchange of two vortices, as revealed in the lowest eight many-body eigenstates of 16 sites toroidal lattices. Appealing to an effective Harper bosons model on larger lattices, revealed vortex eigenstates with both Bose and Fermi permutation symmetries, although vortices do carry spin half quantum numbers. It may exemplify that a general non-relativistic "spin-statistics theorem" in two dimensions does not hold.