Article
Article
Electron spin
Article By:
Rich, Arthur Formerly, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Kinoshita, Toichiro Laboratory of Nuclear Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Last reviewed:June 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.224900
That property of an electron which gives rise to its angular momentum about an axis within the electron. Spin is one of the permanent and basic properties of the electron. Both the spin and the associated magnetic dipole moment of the electron were postulated by G. E. Uhlenbeck and S. Goudsmit in 1925 as necessary to allow the interpretation of many observed effects, among them the so-called anomalous Zeeman effect, the existence of doublets (pairs of closely spaced lines) in the spectra of the alkali atoms, and certain features of x-ray spectra. See also: Spin (quantum mechanics)
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