Spherical angle operators for quantum-mechanical angular momentum

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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation G Nienhuis and S J van Enk 1993 Phys. Scr. 1993 87 DOI 10.1088/0031-8949/1993/T48/013

1402-4896/1993/T48/87

Abstract

We discuss the operators for the spherical angles of a quantum-mechanical angular momentum vector. Since these operators are restricted to the 2j + 1 dimensional state space, both the polar angle and the azimuthal angle have discrete eigenstates. These two operators do not commute, and thus they have a different eigenvector basis. Their commutation rule reflects the commutation rule for the Cartesian components of angular momentum. The relation with coherent spin states is analyzed.

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10.1088/0031-8949/1993/T48/013