Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

States of matter are conventionally classified according to broken symmetries. Topologically ordered phases fall outside of this paradigm, with no local order parameter, yet many peculiar properties setting them apart from disordered phases. E.g., in 2D, they may support anyons - quasiparticles that are neither bosons nor fermions. Moreover, anyons with *non-Abelian* statistics can occur, particularly in the fractional quantum Hall regime. I will present theoretical proposals and will give an overview of the current state of experiments designed to detect such exotic statistics in the nu=5/2 FQH systems.