Viscous dynamics of a quenched trapped dipolar Fermi gas

We consider collective motion and damping of dipolar Fermi gases in the hydrodynamic regime. We investigate the trajectories of collective oscillations—here dubbed “weltering” motions—in cross-dimensional rethermalization experiments via Monte Carlo simulations, where we find stark differences from the dilute regime. These observations are interpreted within a semiempirical theory of viscous hydrodynamics for gases confined to anisotropic harmonic potentials. The derived equations of motion provide a simple effective theory that show favorable agreement with full numerical solutions.