Phys.org  November 10, 2022 Researchers at Caltech have developed a new theory and numerical calculations to predict spin decoherence in materials with high accuracy. They adapted a theory of electrical transport to study spin and discovered that this method can capture two main mechanisms governing spin decoherence in materials—spin scattering off atomic vibrations, and spin precession modified by atomic vibrations. They could predict spin decoherence times with an accuracy of a few percent of the measured values—down to a billionth of a second—and access microscopic details of spin motion beyond the reach of experiments. Their research tools—computers and quantum mechanics—can […]