Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 34D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The intrinsic parity of a particle is the parity eigenvalue of its one-particle state at rest:For the particles in this question, . A two-particle state has multiparticle parity , where is its relative orbital angular momentum.
The pionic-deuterium ground state has atomic . Since the pion has spin zero, its total angular momentum is therefore the deuteron spin, , and its parity is . The two neutrons are identical fermions. Their antisymmetric spin-one-half singlet state would require even orbital , but and would instead require . Hence they must occupy the symmetric spin-one-half triplet state, so the orbital state is antisymmetric and is odd. The addition of angular momentum with permits , leaving . Thus parity conservation givesso the pion has intrinsic parity .
In , the final total spin is . Coupling it to to obtain givesso the allowed orbital angular momenta are . The observed angular probability is , where is a Legendre polynomial; it therefore selects the partial wave rather than . The parity selection rule for a two-body decay now givesTherefore the delta particle has intrinsic parity .