Fractional Chern insulators in singular geometries

Abstract

The fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states or fractional Chern insulator (FCI) states have been studied on two-dimensional (2D) flat lattices with different boundary conditions. Here, we propose the geometry-dependent FCI/FQAH states in which interacting particles are bounded on 2D singular lattices with arbitrary $n$-fold rotational symmetry. Based on the generalized Pauli principle, we construct trial wave functions for the singular-lattice FCI/FQAH states with the aid of an effective projection approach, and we compare them with the exact diagonalization results. High wave-function overlaps show that the singular-lattice FCI/FQAH states are certainly related to the inherent geometric factor. More interestingly, we observe some exotic degeneracy sequences of edge excitations in these singular-lattice FCI/FQAH states, and we provide an explanation that two branches of edge excitations mix together.