Electron Spin-Vorticity Coupling in Pipe Flows at Low and High Reynolds Number

Abstract

Spin-hydrodynamic coupling is a recently discovered method to directly generate electricity from an electrically conducting fluid flow in the absence of Lorentz forces. This method relies on a collective coupling of electron spins - the internal quantum-mechanical angular momentum of the electrons - with the local vorticity of a fluid flow. In this work, we experimentally investigate the spin-hydrodynamic coupling in circular- and noncircular-capillary pipe flows and extend a previously obtained range of Reynolds numbers to smaller and larger values, 20