Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/paper-2/section-b/b8/solution

The angular-momentum commutators give
For example . In the displayed basis , the only nonzero upper entries of connect adjacent magnetic quantum numbers. Subtracting their column and row eigenvalues multiplies each by , proving the first matrix commutator; the lower matrix similarly gives the second. Direct multiplication gives
whose difference is . Also , confirming .
A rotation changes the quantization axis without changing the spectrum, so has eigenvalues . Its dimensionless matrix is
Solving and normalizing gives the spin-one maximum-projection eigenvector
For instance the first equation is , and the squared components sum to one. An overall phase is immaterial.
At , . The Born rule therefore predicts, in the requested order,
This treats the Stern-Gerlach experiment as the stipulated ideal measurement of orbital projection. In an actual atom, other magnetic moments and spin-orbit coupling can change which angular momentum the apparatus resolves.

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