AMO In the literature: contested

Universal lower bound on spin diffusion in strongly interacting fermions

In plain words

When up and down spins are separated, strong collisions slow how fast they mix back. Experiments suggest a floor of about $\hbar/m$, but two kinds of measurement disagree.

Precise statement

Unitary Fermi gas in 3D (and 2D). Determine the minimum longitudinal spin diffusivity $D_s$ and transverse diffusivity D_perp in units of $\hbar/m$, and whether a universal bound $D \ge c \hbar/m$ holds. Answer: the value of $c$ for each, and a theory explaining the difference.

What would settle it

Homogeneous measurements of both diffusivities in the same apparatus near $T_{c}$, with a theory that reproduces both.

Status in the literature

Unverified note

Longitudinal (Sommer et al. 2011, about $6.3\,\hbar/\mathrm{m}$) and transverse (Bardon et al. 2014, about $1.3\,\hbar/\mathrm{m}$) minima differ by about a factor of 5, and spin-hydrodynamics work continues in 2026 (arXiv:2607.29647).

See also