Two-dimensional electron gases as non-Newtonian fluids

Abstract

Two-dimensional electron systems offer an appealing platform to explore long-lived excitations arising due to collinear carrier scattering enabled by phase-space constraints at the Fermi surface. Recently it was found that these effects can boost excitation lifetimes over the fundamental bound set by Landau’s Fermi-liquid theory by a factor as large as (TF/T)α with α≈2. Long-lived degrees of freedom possess the capability to amplify the response to weak perturbations, producing lasting collective memory effects. This leads to non-Newtonian hydrodynamics in 2D electron fluids driven by multiple viscous modes with scale-dependent viscosity. We describe these modes as Fermi surface modulations of odd parity evolving in space and time, and discuss their implications for experimental studies of electron hydrodynamics.