Electron spin or ``classically non-describable two-valuedness

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2008.03.005zbMATH Open1223.81008arXiv0710.3128OpenAlexW3101714613WikidataQ62591175 ScholiaQ62591175MaRDI QIDQ643472FDOQ643472

Authors: Domenico Giulini 

Publication date: 31 October 2011

Published in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In December 1924 Wolfgang Pauli proposed the idea of an inner degree of freedom of the electron, which he insisted should be thought of as genuinely quantum mechanical in nature. Shortly thereafter Ralph Kronig and, independently, Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck took up a less radical stance by suggesting that this degree of freedom somehow corresponded to an inner rotational motion, though it was unclear from the very beginning how literal one was actually supposed to take this picture, since it was immediately recognised (already by Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck) that it would very likely lead to serious problems with Special Relativity if the model were to reproduce the electron's values for mass, charge, angular momentum, and magnetic moment. However, probably due to the then overwhelming impression that classical concepts were generally insufficient for the proper description of microscopic phenomena, a more detailed reasoning was never given. In this contribution I shall investigate in some detail what the restrictions on the physical quantities just mentioned are, if they are to be reproduced by rather simple classical models of the electron within the framework of Special Relativity. It turns out that surface stresses play a decisive role and that the question of whether a classical model for the electron does indeed contradict Special Relativity can only be answered on the basis of an emph{exact} solution, which has hitherto not been given.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0710.3128

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zbMATH Keywords

quantum mechanicsspecial relativityelectron spin

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) History of quantum theory (81-03)

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Cited In (16)

• Taking physical infinity seriously
• A probabilistic model of spin and spin measurements
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• Quantum state and periodicity
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• Spin: all is not what it seems
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• Particles, fields, and the measurement of electron spin
• Special relativity, the source of electron deep orbits
• Classical charged particle models derived from complex shift methods
• Classical electron theory and conservation laws
• How electrons spin

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