7

I'm asking myself more generally why a spin of size $S$ will feature multipolar states of degrees $k$ up to $2S$? (This implies the question in the title: spin-$1/2$ can't have any quadrupolar contributions)

How can I (explicitly) derive this result? I'm looking for a "straightforward" connection with the field of the electron for example.

I'm studying this in the context of spin-nematic phases in quantum spin systems, any help in the subject would be very appreciated!

Edit: More precisely I am reading this text.

And my question is about what's on page 6. Also, I wonder if it is possible to demonstrate that expanding the projection of an arbitrary-spin wave function over a coherent state (we should find for spin-$1/2$ only a scalar term and a dipolar term, for spin-$1$ a scalar, a dipolar and a quadrupolar term, etc.)? If it is the case I don't know how to make it.

Urb
  • 2,608
Toool
  • 364
  • 3
    The algebra is spin-1/2 Pauli matrices implies that all the quadruple moments (Eq. (2.8) in the thesis you linked) vanish identically. Similarly, for spin-1 you start to have quadruple moments but that's it. – Meng Cheng Apr 15 '15 at 16:01

1 Answers1

7

Yes, the statement can be explicitly verified from the matrix representation of the spin operators acting on different spins. Acting on the spin-1/2 object, the spin operators read $$S^x=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & \frac{1}{2} \\ \frac{1}{2} & 0 \\ \end{array} \right), S^y=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & \frac{i}{2} \\ -\frac{i}{2} & 0 \\ \end{array} \right), S^z=\left( \begin{array}{cc} -\frac{1}{2} & 0 \\ 0 & \frac{1}{2} \\ \end{array} \right).\qquad(1)$$ For spin-1 object, the spin operators read $$S^x=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 \\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 & \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \\ 0 & \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 \\ \end{array} \right), S^y=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & \frac{i}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 \\ -\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 & \frac{i}{\sqrt{2}} \\ 0 & -\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 \\ \end{array} \right), S^z=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} -1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \\ \end{array} \right).\qquad(2)$$ Using these operators, it is straight forward to verify that spin-1/2 object does not have quadrupole moment, but spin-1 object does have. For example, the quadrupole moment can be written in terms of the spin operators as $Q^{x^2-y^2}=(S^x)^2-(S^y)^2$ by definition. Plugging in Eq.(1) and complete the matrix multiplication, it can be verified that $$Q^{x^2-y^2}=\left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right),$$ meaning that the quadrupole moment vanishes for spin-1/2 object. However if we plug in Eq.(2), it can be found that $$Q^{x^2-y^2}=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right),$$ meaning that the quadrupole moment is non-vanishing for spin-1 object. Similar calculations can be done for other components of the quadrupole moment straightforwardly. It can be verified that all the five quadrupole moment operators are zero matrices in the spin-1/2 representation, thus explicitly proven that spin-1/2 object has no quadrupole moment.


The answer is basically an expansion of @Meng Cheng's comment.

Everett You
  • 11,748
  • 1
    Thank you for this clear explanation !

    I posted also another question about the mechanism which implies this result, is someone has an idea :)

    – Toool Apr 17 '15 at 08:08