Equilibration rate of spin temperature in a strongly magnetized pure electron plasma

Abstract

The equilibration of spin temperature Tspin with kinetic temperature T is examined in a weakly correlated pure electron plasma in the strongly magnetized limit, where the distance of closest approach is large compared to the Larmor radius. In this limit, the spin precession frequency Ωp=gΩc/2 is large so the component of spin along the magnetic field is an adiabatic invariant that is broken only by resonant magnetic fluctuations of frequency Ωp. (Here Ωc is the electron cyclotron frequency and g≂2.002.) In this case, the most important spin flip mechanism stems from electron–electron collisions in a spatially inhomogeneous magnetic field. Such collisions cause an exchange of spin and cyclotron quanta, and consequently the conventional many-electron adiabatic invariant (i.e., the total number of cyclotron quanta) is broken and is replaced by a new adiabatic invariant, equal to the sum of the spin and cyclotron actions. A quantum Boltzmann equation is derived to describe the equilibration of Tspin toward T.