Complementary colors of colorons: the elementary excitations of the SU(3) Haldane--Shastry model

We propose two possible trial wave functions for the elementary excitations of the SU(3) Haldane--Shastry model, but then argue on very general grounds that only one or the other can be a valid excitation. We then prove explicitly that the trial wave function describing a coloron excitation which transforms according to representation $\bar{3}$ under SU(3) rotations if the spins of the original model transform according to representation 3, is exact. If a basis for the spins on the chain is spanned by the colors blue, red, and green, a basis for the coloron excitations is hence given by the complementary colors yellow, cyan, and magenta. We obtain the dispersion and the exclusion statistics among polarized colorons. Furthermore, we compare our results with the asymptotic Bethe Ansatz and discuss the generalization to SU($n$).