  The damping of magnetization, represented by the rate at which it relaxes to
equilibrium, is successfully modeled as a phenomenological extension in the
Landau-Lifschitz-Gilbert equation. This is the damping torque term known as
Gilbert damping and its direction is given by the vector product of the
magnetization and its time derivative. Here we derive the Gilbert term from
first principles by a non-relativistic expansion of the Dirac equation. We find
that the Gilbert term arises when one calculates the time evolution of the spin
observable in the presence of the full spin-orbital coupling terms, while
recognizing the relationship between the curl of the electric field and the
time varying magnetic induction.
