  A single-component Fermi gas of polarized dipolar particles in a harmonic
trap can undergo a mechanical collapse due to the attractive part of the
dipole-dipole interaction. This phenomenon can be conveniently manipulated by
the shape of the external trapping potential. We investigate the signatures of
the instability by studying the spectrum of low-lying collective excitations of
the system in the hydrodynamic regime. To this end, we employ a time-dependent
variational method as well as exact numerical solutions of the hydrodynamic
equations of the system.
