For two identical spin-one-half fermions with no additional antisymmetric internal factor, the antisymmetric spin-one-half singlet state combines with an even- symmetric orbital state, while the symmetric spin-one-half triplet state combines with an odd- antisymmetric orbital state.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 31A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For spin , . The Pauli matrices satisfy . The antisymmetric term vanishes on contraction with , and , so . Separating the even and odd terms of the exponential series givesFor the single-particle Hamiltonian, unitary time evolution consequently acts asFor two spins the joint eigenstates of total angular momentum are the spin-one-half triplet statewith and , and the spin-one-half singlet stateThese follow by adding the two spin- angular momenta, or by direct action of the Pauli matrices.
The two terms of the specified Hamiltonian commute, so its evolution factorizes into rotations with opposite angles on the two tensor factors. The unique initial state is . With , , its evolved state isThe singlet amplitude is , giving the requested probability
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 .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 32B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The spin raising operator and spin lowering operator areThe angular momentum commutation relations implyso is proportional to . Sinceits squared norm isChoosing the conventional positive phase gives
Using the spin ladder operators,and thereforeIn the ordered product basis of the tensor product of quantum systemsthe matrix representation isThe two parallel-spin states are already eigenvectors. Diagonalizing the central block gives the four energy eigenvaluesThis is the spectrum of the Two-spin Heisenberg Hamiltonian in an opposing longitudinal field.
The asserted ground-state ordering requires the antiferromagnetic case . As ,The corresponding state at is the unique spin-one-half singlet statewhereas the three states at the first excited energy form the spin-one-half triplet state.
Indeed, for the total angular momentum operatorone has at The Hamiltonian then has rotational symmetry, so energy depends only on the total-spin sector. The singlet has total spin and multiplicity one; the triplet has and multiplicity . This rotational symmetry explains why the triplet energy eigenspace has dimension three.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 2 35A c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Using the states from part (a),The Born rule therefore givesAfter the equal-sign outcomes the state is respectively or . These are triplet states, hence eigenstates of with eigenvalueThe opposite-sign product states are each a nontrivial linear combination of the singlet and the triplet, so they are not eigenstates of .
For two spin-one-half particles,has two eigenvalues and two further eigenvaluesFor positive , the zero-field limit has a unique spin-one-half singlet state ground state and a triply degenerate spin-one-half triplet state excited level.