- #1
cfitz
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Homework Statement
Hi All, this problem is related to spin-1/2 in an arbitrary direction, in particular building off of, but going beyond, Griffiths QM 4.30.
I am given an unnormalized general spin state, [itex]\chi[/itex] in the z basis, and then asked "in what direction is the spin state pointing?".
Homework Equations
Having solved Griffiths 4.30, I know the matrix for spin in an arbitrary direction is given by:
S = (hbar/2)[cos(theta), e^(-i*phi)sin(theta); e^(i*phi)sin(theta), -cos(theta)]
where the commas represent separation within a row, and the semi-colon indicates a new row (sry not to TeX it).
The state I am given is:
[itex]\chi[/itex] = (1+i)|up z> - (1+i*sqrt(3))|down z>
The Attempt at a Solution
My goal is to find the angles theta and phi such that S applied to [itex]\chi[/itex] just gives me back [itex]\chi[/itex]. That is, in the direction the spin state is pointing, I should get an eigenvalue of 1.
From here my method is pretty straightforward (and pretty wrong, I suppose). I just apply the matrix (to the spinor form of the [itex]\chi[/itex] state, i.e. as a column vector)then set the result equal to the original and try to find theta and phi that solves the resulting set of 2 equations.
Not only could I not solve it, I couldn't get Mathematica to solve it either, which is a red flag for me since our professor never gives overly difficult computational problems.
I should mention that I normalized the state with a 1/sqrt(6) before proceeding.
NOTE: I also tried setting my spinor equal to the up eigenvector of S, namely:
|up arbitrary> = [e^(-i*phi)cos(theta/2); e^(+i*phi)sin(theta/2)]
and had similar issues (not being able to solve).
Is this totally the wrong approach?
Any help much appreciated, thanks in advance :)