We propose a many-body index that extends Fredholm index theory to many-body systems. The index is defined for any charge-conserving system with a topologically ordered p-dimensional ground state sector. The index is fractional with the denominator given by p. In particular, this yields a new short proof of the quantization of the Hall conductance and of Lieb-Schulz-Mattis theorem. In the case that the index is non-integer, the argument provides an explicit construction of Wilson loop operators exhibiting a non-trivial braiding and that can be used to create fractionally charged Abelian anyons. This is joint work with S. Bachmann, A. Bols, and W. De Roeck. 

After introducing the problem, its motivation and history, the presentation will cover the results in https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.04908.