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Ferromagnetic spin polarization carried by mobile electrons rather than a separate fixed-spin lattice. A homogeneous spin field splits the electron bands and competes with a positive field cost. Mean-field instability is governed by the Stoner criterion; the ordered metal supports transverse spin waves as well as fermionic particle-hole excitations.

The spin-independent term cancels in the signed sum. The linearized stationary equation becomesThe even powers vanish because the equation is odd under $M\mapsto -M$. Equivalently, the mean-field action has curvatureThus the unpolarized stationary point becomes unstable whenAt low temperature, the derivative of the Fermi distribution samples a narrow window around $\mu$, so ${\chi }_0\simeq \nu (\mu )$ for a smooth density of states. Measuring energy from the Fermi level gives $U_c\nu (0)\simeq 1$, the Stoner criterion in the spin-summed convention fixed above. This identifies local instability of the paramagnetic state; the detailed transition order also depends on higher terms in the action.

In the isotropic ordered phase of itinerant ferromagnetism, continuous spin-rotation symmetry leaves a degenerate direction of magnetization. Its transverse fluctuations produce one gapless, quadratically dispersing mean-field itinerant ferromagnetic Goldstone mode, $E(\mathbf{q})\propto q^2$. The two broken spin generators form a canonical pair, as for the type-B Goldstone boson of the localized ferromagnet. The system also remains metallic, with exchange-split Fermi surfaces and low-energy spin-conserving particle-hole excitations. Longitudinal-amplitude fluctuations and the spin-flip continuum are distinct from the long-wavelength magnon; their energy and damping scales depend on the band structure. Spin anisotropy, if added, could gap the transverse mode, but it is absent from the stated Hamiltonian.

For a spin-degenerate band, the total density of states includes both spin species and is twice the single-spin density of states. Per lattice site, $\nu (ϵ)=2N^{-1}{\sum }_k\delta (ϵ-{ϵ}_k)$. Using a separate explicit spin sum then requires a compensating factor one half when converting momentum sums. The normalization matters in the Stoner criterion.