Re: A question about the spin 2 particle.

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        1.  What in the world is a "De Broglie amplitude"?  I do not
find the expression in either Schiff or Landau and Lifschitz.
        2.  Physics question are not settled by vote or popular opinion.
I gave you a reference for my answer.  If you wish to correct the
reference there are a number of us who will consider your comments and
respond appropriately.
        3.  Please give the Feynman reference that you are referring to.
                                Regards,
                                        Jack
On Fri, 22 Dec 2000, Robert B Zannelli wrote:

> In a message dated 12/22/00 7:17:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV
> writes:
>
> << Hi all-
>          This is unnecessarily complicated and confusing.  The answer is
>  that a 1-particle bosonic (integer spin) state is invariant under a
>  360 degree rotation.  A 1-particle fermionic state changes sign under such
>  a rotation.
>          End of story.  For more detail see Weinberg, Vol. I, p. 89, where
>  you will see that the result is not quantum-mechanical but has to do
>  with representations of the Poincare' group.
>                                  Regards,
>                                          Jack
>
>   >>
> Hi Jack
>      This has been an ongoing discussion on another Physics list where, after
> a few days with no answer from this list, I submitted this question. The very
> same division occurred among list members there between those who held there
> was no difference between a spin 2 boson and a spin 1 boson and those who
> said the De Broglie amplitude would be the same after 180 degree rotation.
>        The problem that also developed was that according to Feynman a
> particle exchange was equivalent to a 360 rotation. Of course no one disputes
> that for any 360 degree rotation of a boson or any boson exchange that the De
> Broglie amplitude is returned. The dispute is over if it occurs also at 180
> degree for a spin 2 particle.
>        Now David Bowmen has posted and has said as long as the probability
> amplitude is zero for all odd numbered eigenstates the De Broglie amplitude
> would be returned after a 180 degree rotation. So I am not sure if the
> problem is so simple but I don't really know, which is why I posted my
> question. I never expected to split the opinion on two physics list.
>
> Bob Zannelli

--
While [Jane] Austen's majestic use of language is surely diminished in its
translation to English, it is hoped that the following translation conveys
at least a sense of her exquisite command of her native tongue.
                        Greg Nagan from "Sense and Sensibility" in
                     <The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>