I The determination of a particle's spin

  • I
  • Thread starter Thread starter Randall71284
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Determination Spin
Randall71284
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
If I am unable to distinguish the spin of a particle in an absence of an electric field or magnetic field, how am I able to determine whether there is an electric or magnetic field in a real-life context?

How is it that we can be sure of the uncertainty of the spin of particles if we are unable to create a situation in which there is an absence of an electric or magnetic field?

If a small enough field could be ignored (as there still are fields, however small in magnitude, acting on every particle in the universe), is there a level of magnitude in which the electromagnetic fields can be deemed insignificant that the particle’s spin is unaffected?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I don't understand what you mean. How else do you want to measure the spin of your particle than with applying some electromagnetic field?
 
I mean that if we could only measure the spin of a particle by applying an electromagnetic field, and since there must be an effect on the particle by some electromagnetic field, then is there a point in saying that we must apply some electromagnetic field to measure it? Will there be any uncertainty in a particle's spin?
 
Randall71284 said:
I mean that if we could only measure the spin of a particle by applying an electromagnetic field, and since there must be an effect on the particle by some electromagnetic field, then is there a point in saying that we must apply some electromagnetic field to measure it? Will there be any uncertainty in a particle's spin?
I'm also not sure what you're asking. QM says that a particle's spin (relative to any given axis) is indeterminate unless you measure its spin about that axis. If you do, you get one of a set of possible discrete values. In the case of an electron, for example, you get ##\pm \dfrac \hbar 2##.

What are you asking in relation to that?
 
"How else do you want to measure the spin of your particle than with applying some electromagnetic field?"
Most particle spins are measured without an electrical electromagnetic field, especially neutral particles.
The neutrino spin was measured using conservation of angular momentum.
 
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!
Back
Top