  We show that ultracold fermions in an artificial magnetic field open up a new
window to the physics of the spinful fractional quantum Hall effect. We
numerically study the lowest energy states of strongly interacting few-fermion
systems in rapidly rotating optical microtraps. We find that skyrmion-like
ground states with locally ferromagnetic, long-range spin textures emerge. To
realize such states experimentally, rotating microtraps with higher-order
angular momentum components may be used to prepare fermionic particles in a
lowest Landau level. We find parameter regimes in which skyrmion-like ground
states should be accessible in current experiments and demonstrate an adiabatic
pathway for their preparation in a rapidly rotating harmonic trap. The addition
of long range interactions will lead to an even richer interplay between spin
textures and fractional quantum Hall physics.
