Spin Currents and Spin Dynamics in Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory

Abstract

We derive and analyze the equation of motion for the spin degrees of freedom within time-dependent spin-density-functional theory (TD-SDFT). The results are (i) a prescription for obtaining many-body corrections to the single-particle spin currents from the Kohn-Sham equation of TD-SDFT, (ii) the existence of an exchange-correlation (xc) torque within TD-SDFT, (iii) a prescription for calculating, from TD-SDFT, the torque exerted by spin currents on the spin magnetization, (iv) a novel exact constraint on approximate xc functionals, and (v) the discovery of serious deficiencies of popular approximations to TD-SDFT when applied to spin dynamics.