Orbital Description of Landau Levels

Abstract: We construct a minimal lattice model to provide an orbital description of lowest and first Landau levels. With the maximally localized Wannier functions with $s$, $p_-$, $p_+$ orbital characteristics, a three-orbital model is developed, where the lowest two Chern bands are flat with $\mathcal{C}=1$. This model can be viewed as consecutive band inversions between these Wannier states at $\Gamma$ and $K$ in momentum space, which adiabatically connects the atomic insulator limit to Landau level physics. Interestingly, many-body exact diagonalization and entanglement spectrum analysis suggest that the Abelian states can appear in the 1/3-filled lowest Chern band, while the signatures of the non-Abelian states are found in the half-filled first Chern band. This construction can be further extended to realize flat Chern bands resembling the higher Landau levels. Our results offer a new perspective to understand the lattice analogue of Landau levels, potentially enabling the realization of the fascinating topological phenomena at higher temperatures.