Adding Two Spins to Vector Quantities

  • Thread starter Thread starter Quarlep
  • Start date Start date
Quarlep
Messages
257
Reaction score
4
Spin is a quantity of vector but I don't know how to add them ? Please be simple
Thanks
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I don't know if that's simple enough, but in QM spin is not an ordinary vector. In general, in QM when you have two systems (say two particles) represented by |\psi_1\rangle and |\psi_2\rangle, the total state composed by the two particles is given by their tensor product: |\psi_{tot}\rangle=|\psi_1\rangle|\psi_2\rangle.

The same thing is valid for spins. If you have two particles with, for example, spins S_1=1/2 and S_2=1/2, then the total spin S=S_1+S_2 is given by the tensor product |S\rangle=|S_1,S_{1z}\rangle|S_2,S_{2z}\rangle, where S_{iz} is the value of the third component of the i-th spin. To do this composition you need the so called Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. Anyway, the final spin can be S=0,1 and the value of its third component is given by this tables.

This is very very shortly explained but I hope is clear enough.
 
Yeah its clear enough thanks
 
Not an expert in QM. AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is quite different from the classical wave equation. The former is an equation for the dynamics of the state of a (quantum?) system, the latter is an equation for the dynamics of a (classical) degree of freedom. As a matter of fact, Schrödinger's equation is first order in time derivatives, while the classical wave equation is second order. But, AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is a wave equation; only its interpretation makes it non-classical...
I am not sure if this falls under classical physics or quantum physics or somewhere else (so feel free to put it in the right section), but is there any micro state of the universe one can think of which if evolved under the current laws of nature, inevitably results in outcomes such as a table levitating? That example is just a random one I decided to choose but I'm really asking about any event that would seem like a "miracle" to the ordinary person (i.e. any event that doesn't seem to...

Similar threads

Back
Top