Continuum limit of lattice quasielectron wavefunctions

Abstract

Abstract Trial states describing anyonic quasiholes in the Laughlin state were found early on, and it is therefore natural to expect that one should also be able to create anyonic quasielectrons. Nevertheless, the existing trial wavefunctions for quasielectrons show behaviors that are not compatible with the expected topological properties or their construction involves ad hoc elements. It was shown, however, that for lattice fractional quantum Hall systems, it is possible to find a relatively simple quasielectron wavefunction that has all the expected properties (2018 New J. Phys. 20 033029). This naturally poses the question: what happens to this wavefunction in the continuum limit? Here we demonstrate that, although one obtains a finite continuum wavefunction when the quasielectron is on top of a lattice site, such a limit of the lattice quasielectron does not exist in general. In particular, if the quasielectron is put anywhere else than on a lattice site, the lattice wavefunction diverges when the continuum limit is approached. The divergence can be removed by projecting the state on the lowest Landau level, but we find that the projected state does also not have the properties expected for anyonic quasielectrons. We hence conclude that the lattice quasielectron wavefunction does not solve the difficulty of finding trial states for anyonic quasielectrons in the continuum.