Stern-Gerlach Experiment on Polarized Neutrons

Sherwood, Jesse E.; Stephenson, T. E.; Bernstein, Seymour

doi:10.1103/physrev.96.1546

Cited by 39 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…To avoid complications due to the Lorentz force [16] we consider motion of neutrons in a classical magnetic field [56]. Equations of motion are most conveniently obtained by using S W that have standard commutations/Poisson brackets relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin and localization of relativistic fermions and uncertainty relations

2016

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We discuss relations between several relativistic spin observables and derive a Lorentz-invariant characteristic of a reduced spin density matrix. A relativistic position operator that satisfies all the properties of its nonrelativistic analog does not exist. Instead we propose two causality-preserving positive operator-valued measures (POVM) that are based on projections onto one-particle and antiparticle spaces, and on the normalized energy density. They predict identical expectation values for position. The variances differ by less than a quarter of the squared de Broglie wavelength and coincide in the nonrelativistic limit. Since the resulting statistical moment operators are not canonical conjugates of momentum, the Heisenberg uncertainty relations need not hold. Indeed, the energy density POVM leads to a lower uncertainty. We reformulate the standard equations of the spin dynamics by explicitly considering the charge-independent acceleration, allowing a consistent treatment of backreaction and inclusion of a weak gravitational field.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin and localization of relativistic fermions and uncertainty relations

2016

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“…It is instructive to first search for the global minimum of Eq. (15) in the case that we do not know whether the particle moves or not and do not know about the effect of the applied electromagnetic field on the frequency distribution of the (j, k) n,τ 's. In this situation, we may discard the time dependence altogether and search for the non-trivial global minimum of…”

Section: E Including Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an inhomogeneous magnetic field, spin effects cannot be separated from the effects of the Lorentz force due to the orbital motion of the charged particle. However, these difficulties are technical rather than conceptual as they do not consider the possibility that there are neutral particles (not subject to the Lorentz force) with magnetic moments, such as neutrons, for which Stern-Gerlach experiment is not only possible in principle but has really been performed [15]. It is clear now that the naive way to demonstrate the "essentially non-classical" character of the spin degree of freedom premature.In this paper, we show how the Pauli equation and the concept of spin naturally emerge from the logical-inference analysis of experiments on a charged particle.…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantum theory as a description of robust experiments: Derivation of the Pauli equation

et al. 2015

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“…The interaction of this field with magnetic moment of the particles changes the momentum of the latter. As a result, the particle beam is split into in 2S + 1 spatially well-separated directions which are determined by the unit vector a, an experimental fact [62,64,65,67]. This experimental fact is regarded as direct evidence for the quantized magnetic moment [12,13,62].…”

Section: Double Stern-gerlach Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Separation of conditions as a prerequisite for quantum theory

Raedt¹,

Katsnelson²,

Willsch

et al. 2019

Annals of Physics

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We introduce the notion of "separation of conditions" meaning that a description of statistical data obtained from experiments, performed under a set of different conditions, allows for a decomposition such that each partial description depends on mutually exclusive subsets of these conditions. Descriptions that allow a separation of conditions are shown to entail the basic mathematical framework of quantum theory. The Stern-Gerlach and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiment with three, respectively nine possible outcomes are used to illustrate how the separation of conditions can be used to construct their quantum theoretical descriptions. It is shown that the mathematical structure of separated descriptions implies that, under certain restrictions, the time evolution of the data can be described by the von Neumann/Schrödinger equation.

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Stern-Gerlach Experiment on Polarized Neutrons

Cited by 39 publications

References 4 publications

Spin and localization of relativistic fermions and uncertainty relations

Spin and localization of relativistic fermions and uncertainty relations

Quantum theory as a description of robust experiments: Derivation of the Pauli equation

Separation of conditions as a prerequisite for quantum theory

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