We present an overview of the theoretical background and experimental re sults in the rapidly developing field of semiconductor quantum dots - systems 8 6 of dimensions as small as 10- -10- m (quasi-zero-dimensional) that contain a small and controllable number (1-1000) of electrons. The electronic structure of quantum dots, including the energy quan tization of the single-particle states (due to spatial confinement) and the evolution of these (Fock-Darwin) states in an increasing external magnetic field, is described. The properties of many-electron systems confined in a dot are also studied. This includes the separation of the center-of-mass mo tion for the parabolic confining potential (and hence the insensitivity of the transitions under far infrared radiation to the Coulomb interactions and the number of particles - the generalized Kohn theorem) and the effects due to Coulomb interactions (formation of the incompressible magic states at high magnetic fields and their relation to composite jermions), and finally the spin-orbit interactions. In addition, the excitonic properties of quantum dots are discussed, including the energy levels and the spectral function of a single exciton, the relaxation of confined carriers, the metastable states and their effect on the photoluminescence spectrum, the interaction of an exciton with carriers, and exciton condensation. The theoretical part of this work, which is based largely on original re sults obtained by the authors, has been supplemented with descriptions of various methods of creating quantum-dot structures."

This book presents the wide range of topics in two-dimensional physics of quantum Hall systems, especially fractional quantum Hall states. It covers the fundamental problems of two-dimensional quantum statistics in terms of topology and the corresponding braid group formalism for composite fernions, and the main formalism used in many-body quantum Hall theories, the Chern-Simons theory. Numerical studies are introduced for spherical systems and the composite fermion theory is tested. The book introduces the concept of the hierarchy of condensed states, the BCS paired Hall state, and multi-component quantum Hall systems and spin quantum Hall systems.