Understanding spin transport from the motion in SU(2)$\times$U(1) fields
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2008-04-19 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons
Abstract
Starting from a continuum constituted by charged tops, we formulate the classical counterpart of a previously obtained covariant continuity-like equation for the spin current. Such a formulism provides an intuitive picture to elucidate the non-conservation of the spin current and to interpret the condition for the emergence of an infinite spin relaxation time. It also facilitates the discussion on the spin precession in a one-dimensional quantum wire with Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings. Furthermore, we derive the diffusion equations for both the charge and spin densities and find that they couple to each other due to the Zitterbewegung.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0803.1101,
title = {Understanding spin transport from the motion in SU(2)$\times$U(1) fields},
author = {Pei-Qing Jin and You-Quan Li},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.1101},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures; this is the extended version of Xiv:cond-mat/0608303 to publish in PRB