Spin dynamics of cold fermions with synthetic spin-orbit coupling

Abstract

We consider spin relaxation dynamics in cold Fermi gases with a pure-gauge spin-orbit coupling corresponding to recent experiments. We show that such experiments can give a direct access to the collisional spin drag rate, and establish conditions for the observation of spin drag effects. In the recent experiments the dynamics is found to be mainly ballistic leading to new regimes of reversible spin relaxation-like processes.