- #1
nmbr28albert
- 13
- 3
Hello everyone, this has been on my mind for a while and I finally realized I could just ask on here for some input :)
I think in general, when most people start learning quantum mechanics, they are under the impression that the wave function [itex]\Psi[/itex] represents everything you could possibly know about, say, an electron. If you want to know the expectation value of something, simply stick in the operator and integrate. However, when you get to spin, the spinor is introduced for spin 1/2 particles, which is a 2-D vector, and the corresponding operators are matrices. Is the spinor encoded in the wave function somehow? Or are they two distinct pieces to describing a particle?
I think in general, when most people start learning quantum mechanics, they are under the impression that the wave function [itex]\Psi[/itex] represents everything you could possibly know about, say, an electron. If you want to know the expectation value of something, simply stick in the operator and integrate. However, when you get to spin, the spinor is introduced for spin 1/2 particles, which is a 2-D vector, and the corresponding operators are matrices. Is the spinor encoded in the wave function somehow? Or are they two distinct pieces to describing a particle?