Correlation Effects in Quantum Dot Wave Function Imaging

We demonstrate that in semiconductor quantum dots wave functions probed by imaging techniques based on 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 (density functional theory, Hartree-Fock) in the strongly correlated regime corresponding to low electron density. 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.