Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Spin diffuses through interacting fermi gas

This is definitely a typical non-equilibrium problem. In their experiment, "A spin current is induced by spatially separating two spin components and observing their evolution in an external trapping potential." [Nature, 472:401(2011)] They found that, "interactions can be strong enough to reverse spin currents, with components of opposite spin reflecting off each other. Near equilibrium, we obtain the spin drag coefficient, the spin diffusivity and the spin susceptibility as a function of temperature on resonance and show that they obey universal laws at high temperatures. In the degenerate regime, the spin diffusivity approaches a value set by planck/m, the quantum limit of diffusion, where planck/m is Planck’s constant divided by 2π and m the atomic mass. For repulsive interactions, our measurements seem to exclude a metastable ferromagnetic state9, 10, 11." For a review, click here.

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