# Reconciling edge states with compressible stripes in a ballistic mesoscopic conductor

## TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive quantum-electrostatic analysis of a ballistic conductor in the quantum Hall regime, revealing a new hybrid phase that combines features of edge states and compressible stripes, with implications for magneto-conductance.

## Contribution

It introduces a full quantum-electrostatic solution that uncovers a hybrid phase bridging Landauer-Buttiker and compressible/incompressible stripe models.

## Key findings

- Recovery of LB channels at low magnetic fields
- Identification of a hybrid phase at intermediate fields
- Magneto-conductance behavior showing interplay between regimes

## Abstract

The well-known Landauer-Buttiker (LB) picture used to explain the quantum Hall effect uses the concept of (chiral) edge states that carry the current. In their seminal 1992 article, Chklovskii, Shklovskii and Glazman (CSG) showed that the LB picture does not account for some very basic properties of the gas, such as its density profile, as it lacks a proper treatment of the electrostatic energy. They showed that, instead, one should consider alternated stripes of compressible and incompressible phases. In this letter, we revisit this issue using a full solution of the quantum-electrostatic problem of a narrow ballistic conductor, beyond the CSG approach. We recover the LB channels at low field and the CSG compressible/incompressible stripes at high field. Our calculations reveal the existence of a third "hybrid" phase at intermediate field. This hybrid phase has well defined LB type edge states, yet possesses a Landau level pinned at the Fermi energy as in the CSG picture. We calculate the magneto-conductance which reveals the interplay between the LB and CSG regimes. Our results have important implications for the propagation of edge magneto-plasmons.