Quantum dots in high magnetic fields: Rotating-Wigner-molecule versus composite-fermion approach

TL;DR

This study compares two theoretical models for electrons in high magnetic fields, finding that rotating-electron-molecule wave functions better describe the system's properties than composite-fermion approaches.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of rotating-electron-molecule and composite-fermion models using exact diagonalization data for six electrons at high angular momenta.

Findings

Rotating-electron-molecule wave functions outperform composite-fermion models.

The study covers a range of angular momenta and filling factors.

Results include energetic, spectral, and transport property comparisons.

Abstract

Exact diagonalization results are reported for the lowest rotational band of N=6 electrons in strong magnetic fields in the range of high angular momenta 70 <= L <= 140 (covering the corresponding range of fractional filling factors 1/5 >= nu >= 1/9). A detailed comparison of energetic, spectral, and transport properties (specifically, magic angular momenta, radial electron densities, occupation number distributions, overlaps and total energies, and exponents of current-voltage power law) shows that the recently discovered rotating-electron-molecule wave functions [Phys. Rev. B 66, 115315 (2002)] provide a superior description compared to the composite-fermion/Jastrow-Laughlin ones.