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Abstract

Strong rotating magnetic fields may cause a precession of the electron's spin around the rotation axis of the magnetic field. The superposition of two counterpropagating laser beams with circular polarization and opposite helicity features such a rotating magnetic field component but also carries spin. The laser's spin density, that can be expressed in terms of the lase's electromagnetic fields and potentials, couples to the electron's spin via a relativistic correction to the Pauli equation. We show that the quantum mechanical interaction of the electron's spin with the laser's rotating magnetic field and with the laser's spin density counteract each other in such a way that a net spin rotation remains with a precession frequency that is much smaller than the frequency one would expect from the rotating magnetic field alone. In particular, the frequency scales differently with the laser's electric field strength depending on if relativistic corrections are taken into account or not. Thus, the relativistic coupling of the electron's spin to the laser's spin density changes the dynamics not only quantitatively but also qualitatively as compared to the nonrelativistic theory. The electron's spin dynamics is a genuine quantum mechanical relativistic effect.