Why the intrinsic spin cannot be expressed in terms of polar vectors or the orbital variables $\bf r$ and $\bf p$?
Or, why do we need matrix representation for Spin?
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Qmechanic
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Roshan Shrestha
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...what? I have no idea what you mean - spin has nothing to do at all with position $r$ or momentum $p$. – ACuriousMind Apr 20 '15 at 16:52
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I thought what if Spin is analogous to angular momentum which I know is not true. – Roshan Shrestha Apr 20 '15 at 16:57
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2Possible duplicates: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/822/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Apr 20 '15 at 16:58
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Spin is an intrinsic quantity of a particle similar to a particle's mass or charge, and has units of angular momentum. It is an observable, and the corresponding operator has a matrix representation with respect to a particular basis.
mr blick
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