Are Spin and Quantum States Independent in Wave Functions?

hokhani
Messages
552
Reaction score
15
When we speak about wave function of an electron, we write it as ψ_{n,σ} (x,ζ) so that we specify here the orbital quantum number by n and spin quantum number by σ. σ can take two values according to spin up or down. x is space position and ζ has two discrete values related to spin up and down.
Now my question:
Is it possible to have σ related to spin up and ζ related to spin down simultaneously? In other words are σ and ζ independent (like n and x that are independent)?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
It's not correct, there's only a continuous (space, momentum, space-time, momentum-time) functional dependence of the electron/spin σ particle. * The "ζ" should be deleted, the spin character of the wavefunction appears only as a counting label on ψ, just like other labels (total angular momentum, electric charge, parity).

* Mathematically speaking ψ is a mapping from R3 (disregard time) to \otimes_{\sigma} L^2 (R^3), where sigma takes 2s+1 = 2 (s=1/2) values in the Pauli theory and 2(2s+1) =4 (again s=1/2) values in the Dirac theory.
 
Thanks Mr/Mis Kurt Lewin
I agree, but there is such a statement in the book "Nanostructures; Theory and modeling" by C. Delerue & M. Lannoo, chapter1, formula (1.6), that had made me confused.
 
Last edited:
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!

Similar threads

Back
Top