Inertial forces and the Hall effect

We demonstrate that inertial forces give rise to a phenomenon similar to th e Hall effect in metals and semiconductors. This phenomenon is useful for i llustrating the structure of the Hall effect, since the Hamiltonian for the rotating reference frame problem has most of the same features as that for the problem of charges moving under a magnetic field. In addition, we inve stigate the quantum regime of a rotating system. We find that there exists an analog of the integer quantum Hall effect at extreme rotation rates, but of a qualitatively different nature. An analog of the fractional quantum H all effect will not occur. The similarities and differences between the ine rtial-force and magnetic versions of the Hall effect are good pedagogical i llustrations for the classical and quantum Hall regimes. (C) 2000 American Association of Physics Teachers.