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ac Fingerprints of 2D Electron Hydrodynamics: Superdiffusion and Drude Weight Suppression
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 196303 – Published 5 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/p8sw-99rn
Abstract
Clean two-dimensional Fermi liquids are now known to exhibit an intermediate tomographic regime, between ballistic and Navier-Stokes transport, caused by the anomalously slow relaxation of parity-odd multipolar deformations of the Fermi surface. Here, we show that this anomaly extends to the dynamical realm. Starting from a microscopic numerical evaluation of the linearized electron-electron collision operator, we find that the finite-frequency nonlocal conductivity is controlled at low frequency by a single hydrodynamic pole, , with dynamical exponent and superdiffusive viscosity . Remarkably, the pole residue itself is scale dependent and obeys with , so the dynamical properties are described by two separate exponents rather than one. We interpret the residue suppression using a Krylov-chain description of current relaxation: As increases, the longest-lived quasinormal mode ceases to be a nearly pure current excitation and spreads over higher odd angular harmonics. Finally, we show that ac transport in narrow channels provides a direct experimental probe of these phenomena.