Can electrostatic field lift spin degeneracy?

Abstract

There are two well known mechanisms which lead to lifting of energy spin degeneracy of single electron systems - magnetic field and spin-orbit coupling. We investigate the possibility for existence of a third mechanism in which electrostatic field can lead to lifting of spin-degeneracy directly without the mediation of spin-orbit coupling. A novel argument is provided for the need of spin-orbit coupling different from the usual relativistic considerations. It is shown that due to preserved translational invariance spin splitting purely by electrostatic field is not possible for Bloch states. A possible lifting of spin degeneracy by electrostatic field characterized by broken inversion and translational invariance is considered.