Spin drag in ultracold Fermi mixtures with repulsive interactions

Abstract

We calculate the spin-drag relaxation rate for a two-component ultracold atomic Fermi gas with positive scattering length between the two-spin components. In one dimension, we find that it vanishes linearly with temperature. In three dimensions, the spin-drag relaxation rate vanishes quadratically with temperature for sufficiently weak interactions. This quadratic temperature dependence is present, up to logarithmic corrections, in the two-dimensional (2D) case as well. For stronger interaction, the system exhibits a Stoner ferromagnetic phase transition in two and three dimensions. We show that the spin-drag relaxation rate is enhanced by spin fluctuations as the temperature approaches the critical temperature of this transition from above.