Persistent spin currents in mesoscopic Heisenberg rings -: art. no. 017205

We show that at low temperatures T an inhomogeneous radial magnetic field with magnitude B gives rise to a persistent magnetization current around a mesoscopic ferromagnetic Heisenberg ring. Under optimal conditions, this spin current can be as large as gmu(B)(T/h)exp[-2pi(gmu(B)B/Delta)(1/2)], as obtained from leading-order spin-wave theory. Here g is the gyromagnetic factor, mu(B) is the Bohr magneton, and Delta is the energy gap between the ground-state and the first spin-wave excitation. The magnetization current endows the ring with an electric dipole moment.