Collective excitations of a harmonically trapped, two-dimensional, spin-polarized dipolar Fermi gas in the hydrodynamic regime

Abstract

The collective excitations of a zero-temperature, spin-polarized, harmonically trapped, two-dimensional dipolar Fermi gas are examined within the Thomas-Fermi von Weizsäcker hydrodynamic theory. We focus on repulsive interactions, and investigate the dependence of the excitation frequencies on the strength of the dipolar interaction and particle number. We find that the mode spectrum can be classified according to bulk modes, whose frequencies are shifted upward as the interaction strength is increased, and an infinite ladder of surface modes, whose frequencies are {\em independent} of the interactions in the large particle limit. We argue quite generally that it is the {\em local} character of the two-dimensional energy density which is responsible for the insensitivity of surface excitations to the dipolar interaction strength, and not the precise form of the equation of state. This property will not be found for the collective excitations of harmonically trapped, dipolar Fermi gases in one and three dimensions, where the energy density is manifestly nonlocal.