Universality of the edge tunneling exponent of fractional quantum Hall liquids

Recent calculations of the edge tunneling exponents in quantum Hall states appear to contradict their topological nature. We revisit this issue and find no fundamental discrepancies. In a microscopic model of fractional quantum Hall liquids with electron-electron interaction and confinement, we calculate the edge Green's function via exact diagonalization. Our results for $\nu = 1/3$ and 2/3 suggest that in the presence of Coulomb interaction, the sharpness of the edge and the strength of the edge confining potential, which can lead to edge reconstruction, are the parameters that are relevant to the universality of the electron tunneling I-V exponent.