1. Apr 2, 2005

### ee7klt

an atom consists of an electron (spin 1/2) and a positively charged spin 2 particle at the nucleus (in place of the proton). is this 'atom' a boson or a fermion?

2. Apr 2, 2005

### dextercioby

What do you think...?

Daniel.

3. Apr 2, 2005

### mathman

Deuterium has essentially the property you are asking about. The nucleus has spin 1 or 0 depending on the way the neutron and proton spins add. Since the atom has 1/2 integer spin it is a fermiom.

4. Apr 4, 2005

### ee7klt

well you could have $s_{max} = 5/2$ and $s_{min} = 3/2$ with no more in between. both of which are half integer spins - so a fermion. either way you cut it, if any one value of total spin is an integer (half-integer), the rest have to be integers (half-integer) so no ambiguity between bosons and fermions...?

5. Apr 4, 2005

### dextercioby

Nope,not for real particles there isn't any ambiguity.

This Latex doesn't work with \$ tags,but with [ tex ] and [ /tex ] tags (without the spaces,of course) and for formulas inside text [ itex ] and [ /itex ] ...

Daniel.