Induced nonequilibrium currents in the magnetization of mesoscopic dots in the quantum Hall regime

We have measured the magnetization of a two-dimensional electron system that has been laterally patterned to an array of mesoscopic dots. In our experimental data we observe sawtooth-like de Haas–van Alphen (dHvA) oscillations of the equilibrium magnetization and induced nonequilibrium current signals which are superimposed on the dHvA signal at a small integer value of the filling factor. The nonequilibrium magnetization is found to be independent of the rate of magnetic-flux change which allows us to determine the critical current of nondissipative edge transport. We find that the magnitude of the critical current is directly related to the characteristic microscopic energy scales of the interacting many-body system.