Tomographic Dynamics and Scale-Dependent Viscosity in 2D Electron Systems

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Sep 13;123(11):116601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.116601.

Abstract

Fermi gases in two dimensions display collective dynamics originating from head-on collisions, a collinear carrier scattering process that dominates angular relaxation at not-too-high temperatures T≪T_{F}. In this regime, a large family of excitations emerges, with an odd-parity angular structure of momentum distribution and exceptionally long lifetimes. This leads to "tomographic" dynamics: fast 1D spatial diffusion along the unchanging velocity direction accompanied by a slow angular dynamics that gradually randomizes velocity orientation. The tomographic regime features an unusual hierarchy of timescales and scale-dependent transport coefficients with nontrivial fractional scaling dimensions, leading to fractional-power current flow profiles and unusual conductance scaling versus sample width.