Composite Fermions and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

The mean field composite fermion picture successfully predicts low lying states of fractional quantum Hall systems. This success cannot be attributed to a cancellation between the Coulomb and Chern-Simons interactions beyond the mean field and solely depends on the short-range of the Coulomb pseudopotential in the lowest Landau level. The class of pseudopotentials for which the mean field composite fermion picture can be applied is defined. The success or failure of the mean field composite fermion picture in various systems (electrons in excited Landau levels, Laughlin quasiparticles, charged magnetoexcitons) is explained.