Equilibrium spin currents: Non-Abelian gauge invariance and color diamagnetism in condensed matter

The spin-orbit (SO) interaction in condensed matter can be described in terms of a non-Abelian potential known in high-energy physics as a color field. I show that a magnetic component of this color field inevitably generates diamagnetic color currents which are just the equilibrium spin currents discussed in a condensed matter context. These dissipationless spin currents thus represent a universal property of systems with SO interaction. In semiconductors with linear SO coupling the spin currents are related to the effective non-Abelian field via Yang-Mills magnetostatics equation.Comment: RevTeX, 4 page

Mesoscopic Spin-Hall Effect in 2D electron systems with smooth boundaries

Spin-Hall effect in ballistic 2D electron gas with Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling and smooth edge confinement is studied. We predict that the interplay of semiclassical electron motion and quantum dynamics of spins leads to several distinct features in spin density along the edge that originate from accumulation of turning points from many classical trajectories. Strong peak is found near a point of the vanishing of electron Fermi velocity in the lower spin-split subband. It is followed by a strip of negative spin density that extends until the crossing of the local Fermi energy with the degeneracy point where the two spin subbands intersect. Beyond this crossing there is a wide region of a smooth positive spin density. The total amount of spin accumulated in each of these features exceeds greatly the net spin across the entire edge. The features become more pronounced for shallower boundary potentials, controlled by gating in typical experimental setups.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, published versio

Small-angle impurity scattering and the spin Hall conductivity in 2D systems

An arbitrarily small concentration of impurities can affect the spin Hall conductivity in a two-dimensional semiconductor system. We develop a Boltzmann-like equation that can be used for impurity scattering with arbitrary angular dependence, and for arbitrary angular dependence of the spin-orbit field b(k) around the Fermi surface. For a model applicable to a 2D hole system in GaAs, if the impurity scattering is not isotropic, we find that the spin Hall conductivity depends on the derivative of b with respect to the energy and on deviations from a parabolic band structure, as well as on the angular dependence of the scattering. In principle, the resulting spin Hall conductivity can be larger or smaller than the ``intrinsic value'', and can have opposite sign. In the limit of small angle scattering, in a model appropriate for small hole concentrations, where the band is parabolic and b ~ k^3, the spin Hall conductivity has opposite sign from the intrinsic value, and has larger magnitude. Our analysis assumes that the spin-orbit splitting $b$ and the transport scattering rate tau^{-1} are both small compared to the Fermi energy, but the method is valid for for arbitrary value of b*tau.Comment: Errors corrected, references adde

Spin Hall effect in a system of Dirac fermions in the honeycomb lattice with intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We consider spin Hall effect in a system of massless Dirac fermions in a graphene lattice. Two types of spin-orbit interaction, pertinent to the graphene lattice, are taken into account - the intrinsic and Rashba terms. Assuming perfect crystal lattice, we calculate the topological contribution to spin Hall conductivity. When both interactions are present, their interplay is shown to lead to some peculiarities in the dependence of spin Hall conductivity on the Fermi level.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Thermal ratchet effects in ferrofluids

Rotational Brownian motion of colloidal magnetic particles in ferrofluids under the influence of an oscillating external magnetic field is investigated. It is shown that for a suitable time dependence of the magnetic field, a noise induced rotation of the ferromagnetic particles due to rectification of thermal fluctuations takes place. Via viscous coupling, the associated angular momentum is transferred from the magnetic nano-particles to the carrier liquid and can then be measured as macroscopic torque on the fluid sample. A thorough theoretical analysis of the effect in terms of symmetry considerations, analytical approximations, and numerical solutions is given which is in accordance with recent experimental findings.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Periodic Structures with Rashba Interaction in Magnetic Field

We analyze the behaviour of a system of particles living on a periodic crystal in the presence of a magnetic field B. This can be done by involving a periodic potential U(x) and the Rashba interaction of coupling constant k_{so}. By resorting the corresponding spectrum, we explicitly determine the band structures and the Bloch spinors. These allow us to discuss the system symmetries in terms of the polarizations where they are shown to be broken. The dynamical spin will be studied by calculating different quantities. In the limits: k_{so} and U(x)=0, we analyze again the system by deriving different results. Considering the strong $B$ case, we obtain an interesting result that is the conservation of the polarizations. Analyzing the critical point \lambda_{k,\sigma}=\pm\sq{1\over 2}, we show that the Hilbert space associated to the spectrum in z-direction has a zero mode energy similar to that of massless Dirac fermions in graphene. Finally, we give the resulting energy spectrum when B=0 and U(x) is arbitrary.Comment: 24 pages, references added, misprints corrected. Version to appear in JP

Robust to impurity-scattering spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas

We propose a mechanism of spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gas with spatially random Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The calculations based on the Kubo formalism and kinetic equation show that in contrast to the constant spin-orbit coupling, spin Hall conductivity in the random spin-orbit field is not totally suppressed by the potential impurity scattering. Even if the regular contribution is removed by the vertex corrections, the terms we consider, remain. Therefore, the intrinsic spin-Hall effect exists being, however, non-universal.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figure

Nuclear spin structure in dark matter search: The finite momentum transfer limit

Spin-dependent elastic scattering of weakly interacting massive dark matter particles (WIMP) off nuclei is reviewed. All available, within different nuclear models, structure functions S(q) for finite momentum transfer (q>0) are presented. These functions describe the recoil energy dependence of the differential event rate due to the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions. This paper, together with the previous paper ``Nuclear spin structure in dark matter search: The zero momentum transfer limit'', completes our review of the nuclear spin structure calculations involved in the problem of direct dark matter search.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, a review in revtex

Edge spin accumulation in a ballistic regime

We consider a mesoscopic {\it ballistic} structure with Rashba spin-orbit splitting of the electron spectrum. The ballistic region is attached to the leads with a voltage applied between them. We calculate the edge spin density which appears in the presence of a charge current through the structure due to the difference in populations of electrons coming from different leads. Combined effect of the boundary scattering and spin precession leads to oscillations of the edge polarization with the envelope function decaying as a power law of the distance from the boundary. The problem is solved with the use of scattering states. The simplicity of the method allows to gain an insight into the underlaying physics. We clarify the role of the unitarity of scattering for the problem of edge spin accumulation. In case of a straight boundary it leads to exact cancellation of all long-wave oscillations of the spin density. As a result, only the Friedel-like spin density oscillations with the momentum 2k_F survive. However, this appears to be rather exceptional case. In general, the smooth spin oscillations with the spin precession length recover, as it happens, e.g., for the wiggly boundary. We demonstrate also, that there is no relation between the spin current in the bulk, which is zero in the considered case, and the edge spin accumulation.Comment: Latex, 6 pages, 2 fig

Non-Abelian gauge fields in the gradient expansion: generalized Boltzmann and Eilenberger equations

We present a microscopic derivation of the generalized Boltzmann and Eilenberger equations in the presence of non-Abelian gauges, for the case of a non-relativistic disordered Fermi gas. A unified and symmetric treatment of the charge $[U(1)]$ and spin $[SU(2)]$ degrees of freedom is achieved. Within this framework, just as the $U(1)$ Lorentz force generates the Hall effect, so does its $SU(2)$ counterpart give rise to the spin Hall effect. Considering elastic and spin-independent disorder we obtain diffusion equations for charge and spin densities and show how the interplay between an in-plane magnetic field and a time dependent Rashba term generates in-plane charge currents.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; some corrections and updated/extended reference