Tagged Questions

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1answer
86 views

Can 3 photons be combined to give a spin-0 projection?

Motivation: The neutral pion decays to 2 photons ($\pi^0\to\gamma\gamma$) most of the time. For the decay of the neutral to 3 photons ($\pi^0\to 3\gamma$) we have an upper limit on the branching ...
1
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1answer
46 views

Baryon wave function symmetry

If a baryon wavefunction is $\Psi = \psi_{spatial} \psi_{colour} \psi_{flavour} \psi_{spin}$, and we consider the ground state (L=0) only. We know that the whole thing has to be antisymmetric under ...
8
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1answer
224 views

Did the Feynman heuristic of “simple effects have simple causes” fail for spin statistics?

Someone here recently noted that "The spin-statistics thing isn't a problem, it is a theorem (a demonstrably valid proposition), and it shouldn't be addressed, it should be understood and celebrated." ...
1
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2answers
109 views

Spin of a particle and spin quantum number [duplicate]

what actually does the spin quantum number of a particle describe about? What it means when we say photon has spin 1, Higgs boson has spin 0, etc..?? What actually does that numerical value explain? I ...
3
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3answers
73 views

Trilinear gauge couplings: Spin

In non-abelian gauge theories self interaction of gauge fields is permitted, allowing coupling such as $WWZ$ (i.e. $Z$-boson decaying to $W^+W^-$) or ggg (i.e. gluon splitting into two new gluons). ...
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0answers
43 views

What exactly is the spin of a particle? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What is spin as it relates to subatomic particles? I'm having a hard time grasping the concept of spin, my textbook describes it very vaguely: Stable matter contains ...
1
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1answer
130 views

Lower bound for the spin in particle decay process

Is my logic right? Suppose there is a particle $p$ that can either decay into $ \{$a spin-1 and a spin-0 particle$\}$ or two spin-0 particles, then the lowest possible spin of $p$ is 2. This is ...
5
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1answer
177 views

Spin of Higgs boson 125 GeV

Can someone please explain to me why (according to decay of Higgs boson into 2 photons) Higgs boson cannot have s=1? Thanks in advance
0
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1answer
171 views

What process could produce two neutral pions only?

Any examples? $$? \rightarrow \pi^0 \pi^0$$ If such a process exist, could there be nonzero total orbital angular momentum in the final states of the two neutral pions? But then how to understand ...
3
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0answers
138 views

Spin polarization of decay products

A relativistic moving particle, e.g. muon $\mu^+$, described by its four-momentum vector $p_\mu$, charge $e$ and with a given spin polarization, ${\bf S}=(S_x,S_y,S_z)$, decays into three particles, ...
4
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0answers
150 views

Parity and Helicity of the Higgs Boson

I have been studying how the spin and parity of the new boson discovered at the LHC will be studied and have run into some confusion. The Standard Model Higgs is expected to be a scalar (i.e. have ...
1
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3answers
279 views

Can the Klein-Gordon Equation represent Particles with non-zero spin?

Every Solution of the Dirac Equation is also a solution of the Klein-Gordon equation. So the K-G equation does not necessarily represent particles with non-zero spin. Would it be incorrect to ...
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2answers
298 views

How do you find spin of a particle from experimental data?

So I was wondering, with all this Higgs talk going on, they just detected a particle with a mass of 125 GeV (CMS) or 126.5 GeV (ATLAS). But they still don't know what it is, since there is tons of ...
4
votes
4answers
944 views

What does spin 0 mean exactly?

I heard two definitions: (1) Spin 0 means that the particle has spherical symmetry, without any preferred axis. (2) The spin value tells after which angle of rotation the wave function returns to ...
5
votes
2answers
292 views

Do other particles besides scalars admit tachyonic solutions?

Do other particles besides scalars admit tachyonic solutions? For example fermions or gauge-boson tachyons? The picture in my head is that a tachyonic scalar simply rolls off some unstable potential ...
5
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3answers
386 views

Can the spin of a photon change during its “life”?

Or is the spin set in one of two possible states at its moment of creation and does not change for the rest of the duration of its "life"?
0
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2answers
201 views

How to find that a molecule has zero spin?

I read that Ne has $S=0$. How can this be found, knowing the electron configuration? Electrons, protons and neutrons all have 1/2 spin. The Pauli exclusion principle implies that the even number of ...
6
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1answer
325 views

Fundamental particles with spin > 1

I am in undergraduate quantum mechanics, and the TA made an off-hand comment that currently no one knows how to describe fundamental particles with spin > 1 without supersymmetry. I was curious and ...
8
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1answer
484 views

How does one experimentally determine chirality, helicity, spin and angular momentum?

If I've got an instance of a fundamental particle, how can I separate out the measurements of these three concepts? (I think) I understand the theory behind them, and why the particles in the ...
0
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2answers
252 views

What happens if up quarks are replaced by down quarks and down quarks are replaced by up quarks?

I believe the quarks would flip the proton's internal charge, reverse the spin of the proton, transform into another flavor, and then become unconfined and free.
0
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1answer
179 views

Is the quantum state or information of a particle is all that differentiates it from another particle?

So I have learned in my QM classes that you can't tell one electron from another electron. They are indistinguishable. I also learned that the wavefunction of a particle includes the spacial part and ...
25
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4answers
2k views

What is spin as it relates to subatomic particles?

I often hear about subatomic particles having a property called "spin" but also that it doesn't actually relate to spinning about an axis like you would think. Which particles have spin? What does ...