Effects of anomalous velocity with spin-orbit coupling

Dr. Sherman received his MS degree from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1987 and his Ph.D. from Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, USSR Academy of Sciences in 1990. He was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Theoretical Physics Department at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology from 1991-1999. Evgeny was Humboldt Fellow at the Gutenberg University of Mainz and RWTH-Aachen in 1994, Lise Meitner fellow at the University of Graz, Austria in 1999 and a Research Associate in the Physics Department at the University of Toronto from 2003-2008. Currently, he is the Ikerbasque Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU, Spain. His research interests are spin transport in condensed matter, solid state theory, Bose-Einstein condensates, cold atomic gases and quantum control.        

Spin-orbit coupling is usually represented in condensed matter physics as a properly chosen symmetry-allowed combination of products of spin operators and the particle momentum components. By the general quantum mechanics rules, this interaction introduces a new spin-dependent component in the particle velocity [1], the so-called anomalous term. Here we present and discuss the general concept of this anomalous velocity and analyze several examples of its critical effects in the physics of the spin-orbit coupled condensed matter.

We consider the collapse of spin-orbit coupled self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensates and show that it can be prohibited if the spin-dependent anomalous velocity is taken into account [2].

\We analyze short-term spin dynamics in random one-dimensional systems. Here the anomalous velocity produces mixed spin states and, therefore, strongly influences the spin relaxation [3], leading to a novel spin relaxation mechanism.

We study coherent spin dynamics in cold atomic gases described by the Fermi- or the Bose-statistics, in synthetic gauge fields. For both statistics, this dynamics can be studied in terms of classical trajectories characterized by the anomalous spin-dependent velocity [4].

[1] L. P. Rokhinson, V. Larkina, Y. B. Lyanda-Geller, L. N. Pfeiffer, and K. W. West Spin Separation in Cyclotron Motion, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 146601 (2004).

[2] Sh. Mardonov, E. Ya. Sherman, J. G. Muga, Hong-Wei Wang, Yue Ban, and Xi Chen Collapse of spin-orbit-coupled Bose-Einstein condensates  Phys. Rev. A 91, 043604 (2015).

[3] Sh. Mardonov,  M. Modugno, and E. Ya. Sherman  Dynamics of Spin-Orbit Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Random Potential  Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 180402 (2015).

[4] I. V. Tokatly and E. Ya. Sherman Spin evolution of cold atomic gases in gauge fields Phys. Rev. A 87, 041602(R) (2013).

Faculty Host:  Yuli Lyanda-Geller, yuli@purdue.edu; (765) 464-2371