Experimental Test of Condensate-Excitation Theories of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

It is shown that the description of the FQHE as condensation of the electron system into a ground state with fractionally charged excitations is incompatible with experimental observations. The nature of the Hall voltage in fractional plateaux as a chemical potential difference eliminates the condensate as current carrier and the temperature dependence of longitudinal conductance eliminates the excitation picture of charge carriers.