Spin evolution of cold atomic gases inSU(2) ⊗ U(1)fields

Abstract

We consider response function and spin evolution in spin-orbit coupled cold atomic gases in a synthetic gauge magnetic field influencing solely the orbital motion of atoms. We demonstrate that various regimes of spin-orbit coupling strength, magnetic field, and disorder can be treated within a single approach based on the representation of atomic motion in terms of auxiliary collective classical trajectories. Our approach allows for a unified description of fermionic and bosonic gases.