Acoustic dispersion in a two-dimensional dipole system

Abstract

We calculate the full density response function and from it the long-wavelength acoustic dispersion for a two-dimensional system of strongly coupled point dipoles interacting through a $1/{r}^{3}$ potential at arbitrary degeneracy. Such a system has no random-phase-approximation (RPA) limit and the calculation has to include correlations from the outset. We follow the quasilocalized charge (QLC) approach, accompanied by molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations. Similarly to what has been recently reported for the closely spaced classical electron-hole bilayer [G. J. Kalman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 236801 (2007)] and in marked contrast to the RPA, we report a long-wavelength acoustic phase velocity that is wholly maintained by particle correlations and varies linearly with the dipole moment $p$. The oscillation frequency, calculated both in an extended QLC approximation and in the Singwi-Tosi-Land-Sjolander approximation [Phys. Rev. 176, 589 (1968)], is invariant in form over the entire classical to quantum domains all the way down to zero temperature. Based on our classical MD-generated pair distribution function data and on ground-state energy data generated by recent quantum Monte Carlo simulations on a bosonic dipole system [G. E. Astrakharchik et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 060405 (2007)], there is a good agreement between the QLC approximation kinetic sound speeds and the standard thermodynamic sound speeds in both the classical and quantum domains.