We present a microscopic description of edge excitations in the quantum Hall
effect which is analogous to Feynman's theory of superfluids. Analytic
expressions for the excitation energies are derived in finite dots. Our
predictions are in excellent agreement with the results of a recent numerical
diagonalization. In the large N limit the dispersion law is proportional to
qlogq1. For short range interactions the energy instead behaves as
q3. The same results are also derived using hydrodynamic theory of
incompressible liquids.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures upon request, UTF-311-11/9