Atom Composition: Boson or Fermion?

[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?

 

[dextercioby]

What do you think...?

Daniel.

 

[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.

 

[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 anyone value of total spin is an integer (half-integer), the rest have to be integers (half-integer) so no ambiguity between bosons and fermions...?

 

[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.