Composite Fermions and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

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