Relaxation in Driven Integer Quantum Hall Edge States

A highly nonthermal electron distribution is generated when quantum Hall edge states originating from sources at different potentials meet at a quantum point contact. The relaxation of this distribution to a stationary form as a function of distance downstream from the contact has been observed in recent experiments [C. Altimiras et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 056803 ( 2010)]. Here we present an exact treatment of a minimal model for the system at filling factor nu = 2, with results that account well for the observations.