In reply to Bob Cook's message of Mon, 14 Dec 2015 19:29:26 -0800: Hi, [snip] >>>>>IMO free electrons have no magnetic moment, because they have no "spin", >>>>>which >is not an intrinsic property of the electron, but rather a direct >consequence of >being bound to an atom.<<<< > >Now I would say that is a departure from conventional thinking.
Yup. > >Can you further explain this conclusion? I would guess that you would say >that an electron has no intrinsic angular momentum as well as photons having >none. No, I think photons do have angular momentum, though I don't think electrons do. But it's just a hunch. One of the things that makes me think this is the fact when a free electron circles in a magnetic field, you get cyclotron radiation, but I would expect line splitting of the cyclotron frequency if free electrons also had an intrinsic magnetic moment. > >Bob Cook Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
