Imaging quasiparticle wave functions in quantum dots via tunneling spectroscopy

We show that in quantum dots the physical quantities probed by local tunneling spectroscopies—namely, the quasiparticle wave functions of interacting electrons—can considerably deviate from their single-particle counterparts as an effect of Coulomb correlation. From the exact solution of the few-particle Hamiltonian for prototype dots, we find that such deviations are crucial to predict wave function images at low electron densities or high magnetic fields.