Correlation effects in quantum dot wave function imaging

We demonstrate that in semiconductor quantum dots wave functions, its imaged by local tunneling spectroscopies like STM, show characteristic signatures of electron-electron Coulomb correlation. We predict that such images correspond to 'quasi-particle' wave functions which cannot be computed by standard mean-field techniques in the strongly correlated regime. From the configuration-interaction solution of the few-particle problem for prototype dots, we find that quasi-particle wave function images may display signatures of Wigner crystallization.