Coupling of surface and volume dipole oscillations in C₆₀ molecules

We first give a short review of the "local-current approximation" (LCA), derived from a general variation principle, which serves as a semiclassical description of strongly collective excitations in finite fermion systems starting from their quantum-mechanical mean-field ground state. We illustrate it for the example of coupled translational and compressional dipole excitations in metal clusters. We then discuss collective electronic dipole excitations in C₆₀ molecules (Buckminster fullerenes). We show that the coupling of the pure translational mode ("surface plasmon") with compressional volume modes in the semiclasscial LCA yields semi-quantitative agreement with microscopic time-dependent density functional (TDLDA) calculations, while both theories yield qualitative agreement with the recent experimental observation of a "volume plasmon". (author)