How real are composite fermions?

A new picture of fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) in terms of a novel particle called composite fermion has emerged recently. A composite fermion is a composite of two flux quanta which are effectively bound to an electron as a result of electron-electron interaction. A system of electrons at half-filled Landau level can be transformed to an equivalent system of composite fermions at zero effective magnetic field with a distinct Fermi surface. The FQHE is then viewed as the integral quantum Hall effect of composite fermions away ffrom half-filling. in order to test for these new particles, we have studied transport of anti-dot superlattices in a two-dimensional electron gas. At low magnetic fields electron transport exhibits well-known resonances at fields where the classical cyclotron orbit becomes commensurate with the anti-dot lattice. At half-filling we observe the same dimensional resonances. This establishes the "semi-classical" behavior of composite fermions.