Spin relaxation in the presence of electron-electron interactions.

The effect of the electron-electron interactions on the D'yakanov- Perel' spin relaxation rate induced by the spin-orbit interaction is examined in two dimensions. We find that the effect of the electron interactions on the spin relaxation rate manifests itself via the renormalization of the spin-diffusion constant $D_s$. In contrast, the cutoff energy-scale that controls the weak-localization corrections in the presence of the spin-orbit interaction is shown to be proportional to the diffusion constant $D$. The difference between the two quantities can be especially strong near a magnetic instability or near the metal-insulator transition.