- #1
SlowThinker
- 474
- 65
Hi all.
I'm trying to understand (QM) spin. I have plenty of questions but this one is quite simple.
Lets say there is a tiny grain of coal (because it's black), far away from gravitational or EM fields.
I take a laser, and pick photons that have spin +1 in the z-direction, it doesn't really matter which way ##z## is.
(I assume that this is possible. If not, the experiment can be performed with electrons instead of photons, with some added difficulty).
Now I let the photons hit the grain.
Will the grain start to accumulate the spin?
Will it be radiated away using infrared photons?
Or does spin stay isolated in the electrons that absorbed the incoming photons? What happens after all electrons have switched to spin +1/2 ?
While I'm at it, 2 supplementary questions.
Is a photon's spin uniquely determined by its angular momentum? I tried searching but just can't figure out the right keywords.
Is there orbital spin, or only intrinsic spin?
I might be able to handle an I-level answer, but the simpler, the better.
I'm trying to understand (QM) spin. I have plenty of questions but this one is quite simple.
Lets say there is a tiny grain of coal (because it's black), far away from gravitational or EM fields.
I take a laser, and pick photons that have spin +1 in the z-direction, it doesn't really matter which way ##z## is.
(I assume that this is possible. If not, the experiment can be performed with electrons instead of photons, with some added difficulty).
Now I let the photons hit the grain.
Will the grain start to accumulate the spin?
Will it be radiated away using infrared photons?
Or does spin stay isolated in the electrons that absorbed the incoming photons? What happens after all electrons have switched to spin +1/2 ?
While I'm at it, 2 supplementary questions.
Is a photon's spin uniquely determined by its angular momentum? I tried searching but just can't figure out the right keywords.
Is there orbital spin, or only intrinsic spin?
I might be able to handle an I-level answer, but the simpler, the better.