We derive the quantum Boltzmann equation (QBE) by using generalized Landau-interaction parameters, obtained through the nonequilibrium Green's function technique. This is a generalization of the usual QBE formalism to non-Fermi liquid (NFL) systems, which do not have well-defined quasiparticles. We apply this framework to a controlled low-energy effective field theory for the Ising-nematic quantum critical point, in order to find the collective excitations of the critical Fermi surface in the collisionless regime. We also compute the nature of the dispersion after the addition of weak Coulomb interactions. The zero angular momentum longitudinal vibrations of the Fermi surface show a linear-in-wavenumber dispersion, which corresponds to the zero sound of Landau's Fermi liquid theory. The Coulomb interaction modifies it to a plasmon mode in the long-wavelength limit, which disperses as the square-root of the wavenumber. Remarkably, our results show that the zero sound and plasmon modes exhibit the same behaviour as in a Fermi liquid, although an NFL is fundamentally different from the former.
In a recent paper by Lucas and Das Sarma [Physical Review B 97, 115449 (2018)], a solvable model of collective modes in 2D metals was considered in the hydrodynamic regime. In the current work, we generalize the hydrodynamic theory to 3D metals for which the calculation of sound modes in a strongly-coupled quantum Coulomb plasma can be made explicit. The specific theoretical question of interest is how the usual linearly dispersing hydrodynamic sound mode relates to the well-known gapped 3D plasmon collective mode in the presence of long-range Coulomb interaction. We show analytically that bot…
The plasmon is a ubiquitous collective mode in charged liquids. Due to the long-range Coulomb interaction, the massless zero sound mode of the neutral system acquires a finite plasmon frequency in the long-wavelength limit. In the zero-temperature state of conventional metals -- the Fermi liquid -- the plasmon lives infinitely long at long wavelength when the system is (effectively) translationally invariant. In contrast, we will show that in strongly entangled strange metals the protection of zero sound fails at finite frequency and plasmons are always short lived regardless of their waveleng…
We study the charge density response in holographic models with explicit translation symmetry breaking which is relevant in IR. In particular, we focus on Q-lattices and the Bianchy VII helix. We show that the hydrodynamic sound mode is removed from the spectrum due to the strong momentum relaxation and therefore, the usual treatment of the plasmon as Coulomb-dressed zero sound does not apply. Furthermore, the dominant coherent modes in the longitudinal channel, which control the neutral density-density correlator, are diffusive. We show these modes are strongly suppressed when the boundary Co…
Smooth interfaces of topological systems are known to host massive surface states along with the topologically protected chiral one. We show that in Weyl semimetals these massive states, along with the chiral Fermi arc, strongly alter the form of the Fermi-arc plasmon, Most saliently, they yield further collective plasmonic modes that are absent in a conventional interfaces. The plasmon modes are completely anisotropic as a consequence of the underlying anisotropy in the surface model and expected to have a clear-cut experimental signature, e.g. in electron-energy loss spectroscopy.
We develop a microscopic theory for plasmon excitations of graphene/$α$-RuCl${_3}$ heterostructures. Within a Kondo-Kitaev model with various interactions, a heavy Fermi liquid hosting flat bands emerges in which the itinerant electrons of graphene effectively hybridize with the fractionalized fermions of the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. We find novel correlated plasmon bands induced by the interplay of flat bands and interactions and argue that our theory is consistent with the available experimental data on graphene/$α$-RuCl${_3}$ heterostructures. We predict novel plasmon branches beyond the…
We study the dynamics and the relaxation of bulk plasmons in strongly coupled and quantum critical systems using the holographic framework. We analyze the dispersion relation of the plasmonic modes in detail for an illustrative class of holographic bottom-up models. Comparing to a simple hydrodynamic formula, we entangle the complicated interplay between the three least damped modes and shed light on the underlying physical processes. Such as the dependence of the plasma frequency and the effective relaxation time in terms of the electromagnetic coupling, the charge and the temperature of the …
Luttinger semimetals include materials like gray tin ($α$-Sn) and mercury telluride, which are three-dimensional gapless semiconductors having a quadratic band crossing point (QBCP). Due to a growing interest in QBCPs and new experimental efforts, it is essential to study the finite-temperature properties of such systems. In this paper, we investigate the emergence of plasmons in the presence of Coulomb interactions in isotropic Luttinger semimetals, for zero as well as generic nonzero temperatures. When the Fermi level lies right at the QBCP, which is the point where twofold degenerate conduc…
Quasiparticles and collective modes are two fundamental aspects that characterize a quantum matter in addition to its ground state features. For example, the low energy physics for Fermi liquid phase in He-III was featured not only by Fermionic quasiparticles near the chemical potential but also by fruitful collective modes in the long-wave limit, including several different sound waves that can propagate through it under different circumstances. On the other hand, it is very difficult for sound waves to be carried by the electron liquid in the ordinary metals, due to the fact that long-range …
Many-body correlations probed by plasmon-enhanced drag measurements in double quantum well structures
报道了在费米温度附近进行的电子-电子散射率的电子阻力测量。虽然由于等离子体激元的增强的证据，最近预测[K。Flensberg和B. Y.-- K. Hu，Phys. Rev. Lett. 73，3572（1994）]，发现与基于随机相位近似的计算的重要差异。虽然静态相关效应可能占这种差异的一部分，有人认为，相关诱导的多粒子激发必须包括占的幅度的速率和观察到的密度依赖性。
We study the appearance of a sharp collective mode which features transverse current fluctuations within the bosonization approach to interacting two-dimensional Fermi liquids. This mode is analogous to the shear sound modes in elastic media, and, unlike the conventional zero sound mode, it is damped in weakly interacting Fermi liquids and only separates away from the particle-hole continuum when the quasiparticle mass becomes twice the transport mass $m^* \gtrsim 2 m$. The shear sound should be present in a large class of interacting charged and neutral Fermi liquids especially those proximat…
Transport of strongly interacting fermions governs modern materials -- from the high-$T_c$ cuprates to bilayer graphene --, but also nuclear fission, the merging of neutron stars and the expansion of the early universe. Here we observe a universal quantum limit of diffusivity in a homogeneous, strongly interacting Fermi gas of atoms by studying sound propagation and its attenuation via the coupled transport of momentum and heat. In the normal state, the sound diffusivity ${D}$ monotonically decreases upon lowering the temperature $T$, in contrast to the diverging behavior of weakly interacting…
Using Green's function of semi-infinite Weyl semimetals we find that the collective charge excitations of Fermi arcs in undoped Weyl semi-metals are linearly dispersing gapless plasmon modes. The gaplessness comes from proper consideration of the deep penetration of surface states at the end of Fermi arcs into the interior of Weyl semimetal. The linear dispersion -- rather than square root dispersion of {\it pure 2D} electron systems with extended Fermi surface -- arises from the strong anisotropy introduced by the Fermi arc itself, due to which the continuum of surface particle-hole excitatio…
