Equilibration of integer quantum Hall edge states

Understand

We study equilibration of quantum Hall edge states at integer filling factors, motivated by experiments involving point contacts at finite bias.

• Idealising the experimental situation and extending the notion of a quantum quench, we consider time evolution from an initial non-equilibrium state in a translationally invariant system.
• We show that electron interactions bring the system into a steady state at long times.
• Strikingly, this state is not a thermal one: its properties depend on the full functional form of the initial electron distribution, and not simply on the initial energy density.