Hidden and mirage collective modes in two dimensional Fermi liquids

TL;DR

This paper predicts two novel collective modes in 2D Fermi liquids, called hidden and mirage modes, arising from quantum fluctuations and topological properties, with potential experimental signatures.

Contribution

It introduces the existence of hidden and mirage collective modes in 2D Fermi liquids, driven by quantum fluctuations and topological Riemann surface structures, expanding understanding beyond conventional zero sound.

Findings

Hidden modes propagate faster than Fermi velocity with minimal damping.

Mirage modes occur for strong repulsion and appear as spectral peaks.

Both modes influence time dynamics detectable in pump-probe experiments.

Abstract

We show that a two-dimensional (2D) isotropic Fermi liquid harbors two new types of collective modes, driven by quantum fluctuations, in addition to conventional zero sound: "hidden" and "mirage" modes. The hidden modes occur for relatively weak attractive interaction both in the charge and spin channels with any angular momentum $l$. Instead of being conventional damped resonances within the particle-hole continuum, the hidden modes propagate at velocities larger than the Fermi velocity and have infinitesimally small damping in the clean limit, but are invisible to spectroscopic probes. The mirage modes are also propagating modes outside the particle-hole continuum that occur for sufficiently strong repulsion interaction in channels with $l\geq 1$. They do give rise to peaks in spectroscopic probes, but are not true poles of the dynamical susceptibility. We argue that both hidden and mirage modes occur due to a non-trivial topological structure of the Riemann surface, defined by the dynamical susceptibility. The hidden modes reside below a branch cut that glues two sheets of the Riemann surface, while the mirage modes reside on an unphysical sheet of the Riemann surface. We show that both types of modes give rise to distinct features in time dynamics of a 2D Fermi liquid that can be measured in pump-probe experiments.