Longitudinal electronic and nuclear spin diffusion in atomic hydrogen

2014 The general results recently obtained for the Boltzmann collision term in a gas of atomic hydrogen are applied to the study of longitudinal spin diffusion in high magnetic fields. This phenomenon can be described as a diffusion of concentration in a four component reactive mixture (the reaction being here the electronic transfer between nuclei). A numerical discussion of all the coefficients of the diffusion matrix between 100 mK to 100 K is given in the text, together with a discussion of the nature of the hydrodynamic modes in such a situation. The variations of the diffusion coefficients with the internal state of the gas are important for temperatures lower than 500 mK or higher than 10 K, when the spin exchange process is not negligible compared to the direct process. Finally, the relative importance of these two processes determines the nature of the hydrodynamic modes in the system. J. Physique 46 (1985) 1335-1344 AOÛT 1985, Classification Physics Abstracts 51.10 67.20 05.30