Question about the magnetic dipole moment of the electron

georgenewman

Let's say that an electron is moving with constant velocity through a magnetic field. If the magnitude of the field is the same everywhere in space and if it is perpendicular to the velocity of the particle everywhere, the electron will follow a circular path. We all know that. What I need to know is, in what way does the direction of the magnetic dipole moment of the electron change as it moves along this circular path?

tim_lou

I suppose you are talking about the intrinsic magnetic momentum of the electron. I'll talk about spin instead of magnetic moment since they are proportional anyway.

In QM, the spin of the electron will oscillate with some phase, like the following:
[tex]a e^{i\mu_B B/\hbar }\left| \uparrow\right>+ b e^{-i\mu_B B/\hbar}\left| \downarrow\right>[/tex]

I think (not too sure) the electron will go through photoemission and end up in the ground state.