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Abstract

In Chapter 10 we introduced orbital angular momentum

$$ \hat L = r \times \hat p $$

in terms of the position operator r = (x,y,z) and momentum operator \( \hat p = (\hbar /i)(\partial /\partial x,\partial /\partial y,\partial /\partial z) \) of a particle moving in space. In a magnetic field electrons on atomic orbits with orbital angular momentum ћℓ exhibit magnetic moments

$$ \mu = - \frac{e}{{2M}}\hbar \ell $$

with −e being the charge and M the mass of the electron. The Stern-Gerlach experiment shows, however, that in addition electrons possess an intrinsic magnetic moment µ s . This led George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit to postulate an intrinsic angular momentum or spin of the electron. The intrinsic magnetic moment is then related to the spin quantum number s by

$$ \mu _s = - g_s \frac{e}{{2M}}\hbar s. $$

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Brandt, S., Dahmen, H.D. (2001). Spin. In: The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0167-7_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0167-7_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6532-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0167-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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