Spin diffusion in Fermi gases

Abstract: We examine spin diffusion in a two-component homogeneous Fermi gas in the normal phase. Using a variational approach, analytical results are presented for the spin diffusion coefficient and the related spin relaxation time as a function of temperature and interaction strength. For low temperatures, strong correlation effects are included through the Landau parameters which we extract from Monte Carlo results. We show that the spin diffusion coefficient has a minimum for a temperature somewhat below the Fermi temperature with a value that approaches the quantum limit $\sim\hbar/m$ in the unitarity regime where $m$ is the particle mass. We finally derive a value for the low temperature shear viscosity in the normal phase from the Landau parameters.