7
Orbital Angular Momentum
The classical angular momentum of a particle at r of the momentum p is given by L = r × p. In classical physics, this definition takes care of all the situations like the orbital motion of earth around the sun, the spinning motion of the earth around its own axis and so on. In quantum mechanics, there exists a corresponding operator Lop = rop × Pop. However, this definition of angular momentum is not sufficient to cover all the situations. Within quantum mechanics, there exists two kinds of angular momenta: orbital and spin angular momentum. Orbital angular momentum operator is defined as Lop = rop × Pop. Spin angular momentum is defined later in Chapter 10. In this chapter let us concentrate on the properties of orbital ...
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