Coulomb drag of edge excitations in the Chern-Simons theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect

Long-range Coulomb interaction between the edges of a Hall bar changes the nature of the gapless edge excitations. Instead of independent modes propagating in opposite directions on each edge as expected for a short-range interaction one finds elementary excitations living simultaneously on both edges, i.e., composed of correlated density waves propagating in the same direction on opposite edges. We discuss the microscopic features of this Coulomb drag of excitations in the fractional quantum Hall regime within the framework of the bosonic Chern-Simons Landau-Ginzburg theory. The dispersion law of these excitations is nonlinear and depends on the distance between the edges as well as on the current that flows through the sample. The latter dependence indicates a possibility of parametric excitation of these modes. The bulk distributions of the density and currents of the edge excitations differ significantly for short- and long-range interactions. © 1996 The American Physical Society.