Recent content by gaze

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    Graduate Trouble understanding spin-1 Pauli matrices

    Haha I actually fudged my matrix multiplication. Really sorry to have wasted your time... but I did learn what a casimir operator is! Thanks a bunch for the help.
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    Graduate Trouble understanding spin-1 Pauli matrices

    Yes, but I'm interested in the spin-1 case, which has 3x3 matrices, and where S^2 is not proportional to I
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    Graduate Trouble understanding spin-1 Pauli matrices

    If we consider the spin-1/2 pauli matrices it makes sense that [S_x,S^2] = [S_y,S^2] = [S_z,S^2] = 0 since S^2 = I... and this is supposed to be true in general, right? Well, if I attempt to commute the spin-1 pauli matrices given on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_matrices, with...