32 quantum states of an electron

benzun_1999

what are the 32 quantum states of an electron?

chroot

There is no specific number of allowable quantum states for electrons in general. Instead, the electron's environment dictates what energy levels it can have. A free electron moving through a vacuum could actually have any of an infinity of allowed quantum states. An electron in an s-orbital in an atom can be in one of only two states.

- Warren

VBPhysics

Chroot is right except for one thing. The quantum wave function for a free particle is nonnormalizable meaning that a free particle cannot really exist in a vacuum. So the idea of an infinite number of quantum states is not viable in that reguard.

benzun_1999

a book i read lately said that using the 32 quantum states of an electron you can create a super computer so i thought that 32 states of quantum realy existed, so i asked this question.

chroot

Perhaps in the specific quantum dot the computer used, the electron had 32 possible states. In general, however, there is no specific number -- it depends on the environment the electron is in.

- Warren

Tom Mattson

What book, and what was the surrounding context?

The n=4 state of a hydrogenlike atom is the only system I can think of that has exactly 32 states. But the electron is by no means limited to 32 (just promote it to n=5!).

jeff

Was string theory mentioned? The reason I ask is that in the 10-dimensional spacetimes of string theory, spacetime spinors (electrons are spinors) fill out spinorial representations of the lorentz group that are 32 dimensional.

hey.like

That is right in last time , the quantum theory give our the many new partical and new phys fact. some partical in time is so short, it is sorry in the past long time and huge money. but the success in quantum is right.

benzun_1999

All i read from that book is that you can create a super computer using the 32 states of electron. as most of the computer use only 2 states of an electron, the writer predicted that with the 32 states of an electron you can create a super powerful computer.

chroot

I think your book should be thrown in the fire. Normal computers don't make use of the quantum states of electrons at all, and quantum computers do not necessarily need to provide electrons 32 states.

- Warren

Nereid

32 bit (super) computers? Must be an old book.[;)]

im_red

Could it have been Michael Chrichton’s Timeline? The posting sounds like it came straight from the text.