Chirality-Induced Spin Currents in a Fermi Gas

Abstract

We observe and model spin currents arising from chirality and effective spin-exchange interactions in a weakly interacting $^6$Li Fermi gas. Chirality is introduced by a static displacement between the center of the trapped atoms and the center of an applied magnetic bowl, which produces spatially varying spin rotation. Spin-selective spin current is observed via oscillations in the centers of mass of the spin-up and spin-down components, which appear to bounce off of or pass through one another, depending on the relative size of the chirality and s-wave spin scattering interactions. We show that this behavior obeys a driven oscillator equation with an effective spin-dependent driving force.

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