We argue that, at any filling factor $\nu ,$ correlated quantum Hall systems possess a set of chiral boson excitations that are generated by electronically rigid deformations of the system’s periphery. We submit that tunneling electrons can be accommodated, at low energies, in these systems only by periphery-deformation excitations. This property would explain the recent observation of a tunneling density of states at the edge that does not exhibit a strong dependence on the occurrence or absence of the quantum Hall effect and has a power-law dependence on energy with exponent ${\nu }^{-1}-1.$

• Received 19 January 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.60.1837