THE STERN GERLACH

EXPERIMENT AND
SPIN- PARTCLES
A WAY TO GIVE EVIDENCE ABOUT SPIN OF ELECTRON
BY
MARIA AHMED CHEEMA
AIM OF EXPERIMENT

• This experiment was meant to test the Bohr–Sommerfeld hypothesis that the
direction of the angular momentum is limited to few space directions. It was an
attempt to prove the existence of "space quantization.
• This experiment was performed several years before Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit
formulated their hypothesis of the existence of the electron spin.
• This experiment done in 1920’s discovered a novel aspect of nature and at the same time
found simplest quantum system in nature. It provides way of quantization in quantum
mechanics.
EVIDENCE ABOUT ELECTRON SPIN

• Two types of experimental evidence which arose in the 1920s suggested an additional
property of the electron.
• One was the closely spaced splitting of the hydrogen spectral lines, called fine structure.
• The other was the Stern-Gerlach experiment which showed in 1922 that a beam of silver
atoms directed through an inhomogeneous magnetic field would be forced into two
beams. 
EXPERIMENT

• This experiment done in 1920’s discovered a novel aspect of nature and at the same time
found simplest quantum system in nature. It provides way of quantization in quantum
mechanics.
• A beam of hot atoms is passed through a non-uniform magnetic field. This field would
interact with magnetic dipole moment of atom, if any and deflect it.
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF EXPERIMENT
DISCOVERIES OF EXPERIMENT

The deflection of electrons was found

either up or down by a constant
The atoms—specifically, the unpaired amount in numbers. The Z component
outer electron—did have a magnetic of electon’s spin is quantized.
dipole moment. In effect, in addition to
being charged, electrons acted like tiny
bar magnets.

Electrons have an intrinsic angular

momentum which is equal to . This
quantity is called spin and elementary
particles have non-zero spin. Electrons
are called spin
COMPLEMENTARITY AND RANDOMNESS

• The X, Y, and Z components of electron spin are all complementary variables. Knowing
one of three precludes knowing other two. If a given variable is not well-defined for a
given state of system, when we measure it outcome is random.

• MATHEMATICAL DESCRIPTION OF SPIN

• We can represent a spin up along an axis at an angle
PROBABILITY AND NORMALIZATION
CONDITION
• If we measure Z component, we get up and down with probabilities cos^2 and sin^2 .

• General state for X and Y can be written as,

Where α and are complex numbers with normalization condition. ZUP and are basis vectors of a 2-
dimensional complex vector space.
In terms of this basis we can write any state as column vector:
.
PAULI MATRICES

• In standard Z basis Pauli matrices are:

• , =,
• These matrices are called Pauli spin matrices. They constitute important mathematical
properties like they unitary and Hermitian.
PROPERTIES OF SPIN 1\2 PARTICLES

Every state can be represented by a 2-vector of unit length.

These particles satisfy Pauli exclusion principle.
They have permanent magnetic moment along with their direction, this magnetic moment give
rise to electromagnetic interactions that depend on spin.
They all are fermions.
They include electrons, neutrinos, protons neutrons and quarks.
Spin is intrinsic angular momentum associated with elementary particles. It is purely quantum
mechanical phenomena without any analog of classical physics.