Single-particle spectral function of fractional quantum anomalous Hall states

Abstract: Fractional quantum Hall states are the most prominent example of states with topological order, hosting excitations with fractionalized charge. Recent experiments in twisted $\text{MoTe}_2$ and graphene-based heterostructures provided evidence of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states, which spontaneously break time-reversal symmetry and persist even without an external magnetic field. Understanding the unique properties of these states requires the characterization of their low-energy excitations. To that end, we construct a parton theory for the energy and momentum-resolved single-particle spectral function of FQAH states. We explicitly consider several experimentally observed filling fractions as well as a composite Fermi liquid in the half-filled Chern band. The parton description qualitatively captures our numerical exact diagonalization results. Additionally, we discuss how the finite bandwidth of the Chern band and the non-ideal quantum geometry affect the fractionalized excitations. Our work demonstrates that the energy and momentum-resolved electronic single-particle spectral function provides a valuable tool to characterize fractionalized excitations of FQAH states in moir\'e lattices.