Neutron spin quantum plasmas -- ferromagnetism as a relaxed state (Q401693)

The letter demonstrates that an electromagnetically active spin quantum neutron fluid can self-organize into what may be viewed as a ``ferromagnetic minimum energy relaxed state''. The state endows with a macroscopic spin field, a magnetization current, i.e., a macroscopic magnetic field. The relaxed state (in particular, a state where energy is minimized subject to helicity constraints) is derived through a constrained variational principle involving the conserved dynamical energy, and the conserved total helicity of the neutron fluid. The relaxed states, studied in the letter, are equilibrium ferromagnetic configurations. To model the neutron fluid, the authors use vortical formalism of spin quantum plasmas, which is suitable for unifying and revealing phenomena connected with the deeper structure of plasma dynamics. First, the dynamical equations for a neutron fluid obtained from a general spinning quantum plasma system are described by letting the electric charge go to zero and retaining the magnetic moment. They include the continuity and the momentum balance equations, including gradient forces which do not play much a role in the vertical dynamics used for the investigation of self-organized ferromagnetism in quantum neutron plasma. The spin field represents the normalized ensemble averaged macroscopic spin of the neutron fluid and couples to the electromagnetic field through the magnetization. As a result of using the equations, the authors obtain a summary energy \(\sum\) consisting of the kinetic energy, the spin-magnetic interaction energy, the energy stored in the effective spin pressure, and the energy associated with the electromagnetic field. This energy \(\sum\) is relevant for the study, although it is only a part of the total energy. Thermal energy, contributing purely potential force does not figure in the incompressible vortical dynamics. An equilibrium relaxed state is obtained by a constrained minimization of the energy \(\sum\). This state is accessible to a neutron fluid that has a finite net spin field which yields a finite net magnetic field. For the exact relaxed state (ERS), the dynamical conserved energy is finite whereas the total conserved generalized helicity is zero. The important obtained feature of the ERS is the non-zero spin field and non-zero quantum vorticity. The spin field of the neutron field generates an equilibrium magnetic field even in absence of charged particle currents. It is shown that global ferromagnetism (macroscopic alignment of the magnetic field in one direction) occurs when one of the spin length scales is a macroscopic length of the system. The origin of the spin-ferromagnetism, shown by the dynamic neutron fluid, is caused by a deep interaction between classical and quantum features under specific conditions. To make the total vorticity vanish, the classical and the spin quantum parts must balance.