Viscous fingering and a shape of an electronic droplet in the Quantum Hall regime

Abstract

We show that the semiclassical dynamics of an electronic droplet confined in the plane in a quantizing inhomogeneous magnetic field in the regime when the electrostatic interaction is negligible is similar to viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering on the interface between two fluids with different viscosities confined in a Hele-Shaw cell. Both phenomena are described by the same equations with scales differing by a factor of up to $10^{-9}$. We also report the quasiclassical wave function of the droplet in an inhomogeneous magnetic field.