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arXiv · 1111.3348

A classical analog for the electron spin state

K. B. Wharton·R. A. Linck·C. H. Salazar-Lazaro
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Abstract

Despite conventional wisdom that spin-1/2 systems have no classical analog, we introduce a set of classical coupled oscillators with solutions that exactly map onto the dynamics of an unmeasured electron spin state in an arbitrary, time-varying, magnetic field. While not addressing the quantum measurement problem (discrete outcomes and their associated probabilities), this new classical analog yields a classical, physical interpretation of Zeeman splitting, geometric phase, the electron's doubled gyromagnetic ratio, and other quantum phenomena. This Lagrangian-based model can be used to clarify the division between classical and quantum systems, and might also serve as a guidepost for certain approaches to quantum foundations.

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K. B. Wharton, R. A. Linck, C. H. Salazar-Lazaro. 2011-11-14. A classical analog for the electron spin state. https://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3348

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