Quantum Hall Edges Beyond the Plasma Analogy

We demonstrate that the plasma analogy is generally unreliable at predicting the edge properties of quantum Hall (QH) states, as it fails to account for the local edge velocity. This discrepancy arises from a fundamental difference between QH droplets and Coulomb gases (CGs): the former are incompressible liquids subject to area-preserving deformations, while the latter are governed by electrostatics and thus involve conformal transformations. We illustrate this QH/CG mismatch across various examples and show its impact on physical quantities, measurable in both solid-state samples and quantum simulators. Specifically, we discuss fluctuations of local observables and their connection to state-of-the-art microwave absorption experiments.
Comment: 9 pages + SM, RevTeX, 6 figures