Anisotropy of the hydrostatic stress for Hall droplets with in-plane magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper investigates how in-plane magnetic fields induce anisotropy in the hydrostatic stress of electrons confined in a quantum well, revealing quantum effects as the primary cause of stress anisotropy.

Contribution

It demonstrates that anisotropic stress in quantum Hall droplets arises mainly from quantum effects, not just symmetry breaking, by analyzing electron trajectories in phase space.

Findings

Anisotropy in stress tensor is linked to quantum effects.

Rotating phase space planes decouples the Hamiltonian.

Breaking rotational symmetry alone does not cause stress anisotropy.

Abstract

We examine the hydrostatic stress of electrons strongly confined in a quasi-2D quantum well in the presence of a strong perpendicular and weak in-plane magnetic field. This introduces anisotropy into the stress tensor which is inconsistent with the notion of the quantum Hall droplet as a simple two-dimensional electron fluid. We show that the breaking of rotational symmetry is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for an anisotropic ground state stress tensor, and that the anisotropic stress originates primarily from quantum effects. We demonstrate this by decomposing the semiclassical trajectories of electrons in the system onto planes in phase space which must be rotated relative to the plane of the fluid to decouple the Hamiltonian.