We give an introductory-level overview of the Chern-Simons interaction, which is a special possible modification of electromagnetism in 2 space dimensions.
We explain how electromagnetism behaves in the presence of such interactions at the classical and quantum levels. We discuss recent conjectures on the quantum dynamics of particles with such interactions.
We also overview the role of the Chern-Simons interaction in condensed matter systems and its importance for quantum computations.