Journal of Modern Physics, 2013, 4, 930-939

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jmp.2013.47125 Published Online July 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jmp)

Mathematical Derivation of Angular Momenta in

Quantum Physics
Daniel Grucker
Université de Strasbourg-CNRS, Strasbourg, France
Email: d.grucker@unistra.fr

Received April 24, 2013; revised May 27, 2013; accepted June 26, 2013

Copyright © 2013 Daniel Grucker. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT
For a two-dimensional complex vector space, the spin matrices can be calculated directly from the angular momentum
commutator definition. The 3 Pauli matrices are retrieved and 23 other triplet solutions are found. In the three-dimen-
sional space, we show that no matrix fulfills the spin equations and preserves the norm of the vectors. By using a Clif-
ford geometric algebra it is possible in the four-dimensional spacetime (STA) to retrieve the 24 different spins 1/2. In
this framework, spins 1/2 are rotations characterized by multivectors composed of 3 vectors and 3 bivectors. Spins 1
can be defined as rotations characterized by 4 vectors, 6 bivectors and 4 trivectors which result in unit multivectors
which preserve the norm. Let us note that this simple derivation retrieves the main spin properties of particle physics.

Keywords: Quantum Systems; Spin 1/2; Spin 1; Particle Physics, Spacetime Algebra

1. Introduction 0 1  0 i  1 0 
x    , y    , z    (5)
The spin of particles was discovered by Wolfgang Pauli 1 0 i 0  0 1
toward the end of 1924 (see Fröhlich’s paper for an up- These three J matrices describe the so called spin 1/2
to-date discussion of spins [1]). In quantum mechanics quantum system.
textbooks, the matrix representation of spin is obtained The aim of this work is to address two questions: can
from the commutator general definition of the angular the Pauli matrices or more generally any spin system be
momentum: retrieved directly from the angular momentum definition
and are the 3 Pauli matrices the only 2-dimensional quan-
 J x , J y   iJ z (1) tum angular momenta?

 J y , J z   iJ x (2) 2. Properties of the Minimum-Dimension

Quantum Spin System
 J z , J x   iJ y (3)
The smallest quantum angular momentum is of dimen-
These 3 equations are called the spin equations. sion 3 because there are 3 elements J x , J y , J z . As quan-
The general theory of quantum angular momenta [2] tum mechanic acts on complex vector spaces, the mini-
uses the operator J 2  J x2  J y2  J z2 , the two shift op- mum dimension is a two-dimensional complex space or a
erators J   J x  iJ  , J   J x  iJ  and the positive ei- four-dimensional real space with two elements multiplied
genvalue j  j  1  of J2. The values for j are by i  1 which is different from a true four-dimen-
0,1 2,1,3 2, 2,. For j = 0, the spin space is of dimen- sional real space.
sion 1 and reduced to a scalar equal to zero. For j = 1/2,
the spin space is of dimension 2 and the matrix represen- 2.1. Matrix Description
tation is given by
The two components of the vectors of such a space can
1 1 1 be written as  x1  ix2 , x3  ix4  or in matrix notation:
J x   x , J y   y , J z   z (4)
2 2 2  x1  ix2   r1ei1 
    i  (6)
where  i are the Pauli matrices:  x3  ix4   r2e 2 

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

 D. GRUCKER 931

which corresponds to an ordered set of four real ele- matrix with a null trace. As Jx and Jy are defined by a
ments. commutator, we also have x22   x11 and y22   y11 .
An operator in such a vector space is given by From Equation (2) it follows that the matrix Jx is:
M   aij  a real 2  2 matrix multiplied by a complex  y z  x11 x12 
number α. It can be noticed that the two parts of α pro- Jx    (15)
vide the information about the position of i in the four i  x21 x22 
real number set aij. with
Quantum mechanics only studies operators which pre-
serve the norm, and in two dimensions this is written as: 2 y12 y21 x11  2 y11  x21 y12  x12 y21 
x11 
2 y12 y21   2
 a11 a12   v1  iv2   v1  iv2 
    (7)
 a21 a22   v3  iv4   v3  iv4  x12 
2 y122 x21  4 y12 y11 x11
with 4 y112  2 y12 y21  2
v12  v22  v32  v42  v12  v22  v32  v42 (8) 2
2 y21 x12  4 y21 y11 x11
x21 
The solution is: 4 y112  2 y12 y21   2


2
a
2
11  a21
2
1 (9)
x22 
2 y12 y21 x11  2 y11  x12 y21  x21 y12 
2 y12 y21  2

2
a
2
12  a212
2
1 (10)
From Equation (3) it follows that the matrix Jy has the
a11a12  a21a22  0 (11) same expression as Jx just by exchanging y and x. Calcu-
lating x21 y12  x12 y21 by eliminating x11 gives a relation
which corresponds to
between the Jy elements:
 M   M   1
†
(12)
 
4 y112 2 y12 y21  2  4 y12 y212  4  0 (16)
This result can be easily generalized to quantum vector
As Jy is a quantum operator we have the general con-
spaces of any dimension. We see that αM is not a unitary
straints given by Equations (9)-(11) on the Jy elements:
matrix because it fulfills only one of the two conditions
 
of a unitary matrix U †U  UU †  1 . This implies that y112  y21
2

1
2
K (17)
quantum operators need not be unitary in order to pre- x
serve the norm in the vector space contrary to frequently
held views. 1
y122  y112  2
K (18)
The problem studied was to find the 12 real elements x
of the three following matrices:
y11  y12  y21   0 (19)
k k 
J k   k  11 12  (13) where K is a positive real constant.
 k21 k22 
Equation (19) implies that y11  0 or y12  y21  0 .
with the three αk complex numbers for k = x, y, z. The For y11  0 , Equations (17) and (18) imply that
subscripts have presently nothing to do with the space 2
y21  y122  K , therefore y21   y12 .
coordinates.
From Equation (1), it follows that the matrix Jz is: For y11  0 and y21   y12 , Equation (16) gives
y12   i 2 and we obtain the second Pauli matrix
 x y  z11 z12 
Jz    (14)   0 i 
i  z21 z22  J y1  J y    (20)
2 i 0 
with
or its opposite J y 2   J y .
z11  x12 y21  x21 y12 For y11  0 and y21  y12 Equation (16) gives
z12  y12  x11  x22   x12  y22  y11  y12   i 2 and we obtain the first Pauli matrix:
 0 1
z21  y21  x22  x11   x21  y11  y22  J y3  J x    (21)
2 1 0
z22  x21 y12  x12 y21
or its opposite J y 4   J y 3
which shows that z22   z11 . Mor generally it is well The case y11  0 permits to calculate the constant
known that the commutator of two matrices results in a  2 4 .

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

932 D. GRUCKER

For y11  0 and y21  y12 , Equation (16) gives Table 1. The 24 solutions for spin 1/2 using matrices JX, JY,
 
4 y112 2 y122  2  4 y122 2  4  0 and using Equation (18)
JZ, in ħ/2 units.
J1(JX,iJY,JZ) J2(JX,−iJY,−JZ) J3(JX,JZ,−iJY) J4(JX,−JZ,iJY)
y  y   4 we obtain y122  0 and y11    2 which
2
11
2
12
2

gives the third Pauli matrix: J5(−JX,iJY,−JZ) J6(−JX,−iJY,JZ) J7(−JX,JZ,−iJY) J8(−JX,−JZ,iJY)

J9(JY,JX,iJZ) J10(JY,−JX,−iJZ) J11(JY,JZ,−iJX) J12(JY,−JZ,iJX)
 1 0 
J y5  J z    (22) J13(−JY,JX,−iJZ) J14(−JY,−JX,−iJZ) J15(−JY,JZ,iJX) J16(−JY,−JZ,−iJX)
2  0 1
J17(JZ,iJY,−JX) J18(JZ,−iJY,JX) J19(JZ,JX,iJY) J20(JZ,−JX,−iJY)
or its opposite J y 6   J y 5 . The 6 Jyk matrices are Jy, −Jy , J21(−JZ,iJY,JX) J22(−JZ,−iJY,−JX) J23(−JZ,JX,−iJY) J24(−JZ,−JX,iJY)
Jx, −Jx, Jz, −Jz.
The norm preservation and the null trace constraints
1. This result is the well-known value obtained with
applied to Jx give the 6 different Jxk matrices Jx, −Jx, iJy,
Pauli matrices. In the other 8 cases (rows 3 and 4 of Ta-
−iJy, Jz, −Jz which fulfill the angular momentum criteria.
1
Let us note that all are real matrices. ble 1) we obtain J 2    2 I1 .
All the matrix triplets which fulfill the angular mo- 4
mentum definition in the two-dimensional complex vec- We can associate the spin 1/2 with components Jkx, Jky
tor space are obtained with Equation (14). For each Jxk and Jkz to the space coordinates in the laboratory frame
there are 6 Jyk which gives 36 possibilities for Jz which (O,ux,uy,uz) to define the spin vector of a particle:
fulfill the 3 Equations (1)-(3). Out of these 36 possibili- J k  J kx ux  J ky u y  J kz uz (28)
ties only 24 give a nonzero matrix. Obtaining the 24 so-
lutions is straightforward and only two examples will be 2.2. Dirac Equation
given explicitly. The first one is the well-known Pauli
spin 1/2 matrices: It is well known [2] that the spin of a particle can be re-
trieved using an equation which satisfies the special the-
 0 1   0 i   1 0  ory of relativity and quantum mechanics postulates, such
J1x    , J1 y    , J1z    (23)
2 1 0 2i 0  2  0 1 as the Dirac equation. In Dirac’s book [3], the Pauli ma-
trices are obtained from the commutation definition with
and the second example is less conventional:
the additional constraint:
  0 1  0 1   i 0 
J13 x    , J13 y    , J13 z    (24) 2
2  1 0  2 1 0 2 0 i  J x2  J y2  J z2  (29)
4
It can easily be verified that these 3 matrices fulfill the Owing to the fact that each observable has only two
3 angular momentum definitions given by Equations (1)- eigenvalues ħ/2 and −ħ/2. He obtained
(3). The 24 solutions show that the elements of the spin
 0 eia 
1/2 matrices can take only four values (−1, −i, i, +1) x    ia  (30)
times ħ/2 and the corresponding real matrices: e 0
0 1  0 1 1 0  and stated that the phase  could be adequately chosen so
JX    , JY   , JZ    (25) as to obtain the three Pauli matrices. It is clear that Dirac
1 0 1 0   0 1
did not consider non observable spins and he only took
Let us note that: the 3 Pauli matrices as components of the spin vector.
J X2  1 , J Y2  1 , J Z2  1 (26) In his relativistic theory of the electron, he found that
in order to obtain a linear wave equation it was necessary
and to introduce four 4  4 matrices solving the following
J X† J x  1 , J Y† J Y  1 , J Z† J Z  1 (27) equations:
which proves that all the solutions correspond to an op-  x2  1,  x y   y x  0
erator which preserves the norm of the vectors in the (31)
 2  m2c 2 ,  x    x  0
two-dimensional space.
The 24 solutions of the general definition of the angu- and the same relations obtained by permuting x,y and z.
lar momenta for spin 1/2 are given in Table 1. A solution given by Dirac to these four matrices was:
The general treatment of angular momenta uses the k  k 
0  I1
operator J 2  J x2  J y2  J z2 . If we calculate this operator k   ,     (32)
3  k 0  k  I1 
for the 24 solutions we find J 2   2 I1 in 16 cases
4 with k = x, y, z, which nowadays is referenced as the
corresponding to the first two and last two rows of Table standard form. But it is well known that any set of ma-

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

 D. GRUCKER 933

trices obtained with: and Equation (3) gives:

   UU †
and    U U †
(33) 1
Jy 

where U is any unitary matrix U †U  UU †  1 , is also  2
  12  2  1   13  3  1  
2 2
a solution to Equations (31). It can be shown that for a 0
 
homogeneous magnetic field, the energy of the interac-
    21  2  1    23  3  2  
2 2
0
tion of the intrinsic momentum with the magnetic field is  
  31  3  1   32  3  2 
2 2
q 0 
Es  B (34)  
2m0 (38)
and the spin definition can also be retrieved as and Equation (1):
1 1
S   (35) Jz   ij  (39)
2 4  
where  is the spin vector defined by the 3 Pauli ma-
trices as in the non relativistic case. Dirac’s equation has 
11  2 12  21  1  2   13 31  1  3 
3 3

 2 
to be discussed more precisely only when time evolution
 21  2  1    23 32  2  3 
3 3
 22
is introduced. 12

An important question is why does the general treat-  2 31  3  1    23 32     
3 3
 33 13 3 2
ment of quantum angular momentum give only one solu-
tion? This comes from the definition of J 2  J x2  J y2  J z2 12  13 32  3  1  2  3  1  2  23 
which is a dot product and not the matrix product of two
13  12  23  2  1   3  2  2  3  22  (40)
angular momentum components. This definition intro-
duces some constraints which permit to eliminate the  23   21 13  1  2   3  1  2  3  21 
solutions where J2 < 0, but by taking only the positive  21   23 31  3  2  1  3   1  2  23 
values of j, also eliminates the negative components in
the combination of the Pauli matrices. Therefore only the  31   21 32  1  2   2  31  1  3  22 
 
solution J1  x , y , z is obtained.  32  31 12  1  3   2  1   2  3  21 

3. Angular Momenta for 3-Dimensional To find the angular momenta, Equation (39) must be
Quantum System equal to Equation (36). There are several solutions ob-
tained from the non diagonal Jz matrix elements equal to
If we consider the extension to three dimensions, a vector
zero.
has now 3 components and any quantum operator is de-
If 13   31  2  0 , then 1   . For 1   we
scribed by a real 3  3 matrix multiplied by a complex
obtain a set of three matrix solutions to the spin equation:
number   . We can choose a basis for the vector space
where one angular momentum is diagonal. If we take the  
z direction for this, the angular momentum is:  
 0 i12 0 
 1 0 0   i 2 
 1 0 0  
  Jz  0 0 0 , Jx   0 i 23  ,
J z   0 2 0 (36)  212 
 0 0 1 
0 0 3     
  0 i 2
 0 
where the λk are three complex numbers.  2  23 
As the angular momenta are defined by Equations , (41)
 
(1)-(3) which correspond to non commuting matrices the  
trace of the 3 angular momentum matrices Jx, Jy, Jz is null.  0 12 0 
If we suppose that in the same basis and for the most  2 
Jy   0  23 
general case J y   ij  where βij are complex numbers,  2 12 
we obtain according to Equation (2):  2 
 0 
 0 12  2  1  13  3  1    0 
 2  23 
1 
J x     21  2  1  0  23  3  2  
i   For 1   the sign of Jz and Jx is changed but Jy is
  31  3  1   32  3  2  0  unchanged. If 12   23   i 2 we retrieve the con-
(37) ventional matrices for a spin 1:

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

934 D. GRUCKER

1 0 0  0 1 0 tion of the angular momentum.

     An interesting way to define the spin is to use the
Jz  0 0 0 , Jx  1 0 1,
 0 0 1  2 0 1 0 framework of a Clifford algebra defined in the quantum
    vectorial space.
, (42)
 0 i 0 
   4. Clifford Algebra and Spins
Jy  i 0 i 
2  
0 i 0  In his paper, in order to define the spin, Fröhlich [1] used
a Clifford algebra involving 2k  2k matrices over com-
Another solution is obtained with  23   32  1  0 , plex numbers, which has to be compared to the geomet-
then 2   and for 2   the angular momenta are: ric algebra of spacetime initiated by Hestenes [4-6] and
  also developed by the Cambridge astrophysical group
  [7-9].
 0 i12 i13 
0 0 0  Grassmann and Clifford’s geometric algebra is based
   i 2 
Jz   0 1 0 , Jx   0 0 , on the definition of the geometric product uv for vectors
 0 0 1   212  u, v, w obeying the following rules:
   
 i
2
0 0 
 uv  w  u  vw (45)
 2
 13  u  v  w   uv  uw (46)
, (43)
 

12

13   v  w u  vu  wu (47)
 1
 2  2
Jy   0 0  v2   v v (48)
 2 12 
 2  where εv is the signature of v and the magnitude |v| is a
  0 0  real positive scalar. The geometric product can be de-
 2 composed into a symmetric inner product:
 13 
The third set of solutions is obtained with u v  vu (49)
12   21  3  0 , then 1   and for 1   the and an antisymmetric outer product:
angular momenta are: u  v  v  u (50)
  such that
 
1 0 0  0 0 i13  uv  u  v  u  v. (51)
 
J z    0 1 0  , J x   0 0 i  23  , Orthonormal vectors are defined by:
0 0 0  
 i
2
  i 2  u1  u1  1 u1  u1  0
 2 0 
2  23 (52)
 13  u2  u 2  1 u 2  u2  0
, (44)
  and
 
 0 0 13  u1  u2  0 (53)
Jy   0 0  23 
 2  The signature of orthonormal vectors uk are u  1 .
2
k
  2  The fact that real numbers can give negative squares is a
 2 0 
 13 2  23  little surprising but it is well illustrated by matrix JY of
Equation (25).
The choice of the basis of the 3-dimensional vector
space can also be made so as to have a diagonal angular 4.1. Basis of Geometric Algebra in Two and
operator in the x or y directions, then the equivalent sets Three Dimensions
of solutions will be obtained by permuting the x, y and z
subscripts. The important result of this derivation is that, In two dimensions we have the geometric algebra of the
contrary to the 2-dimensional case, there is no solution plane with four elements:
where the derived angular momentum operator preserves 1, u1 , u2 , u1u2  i.
the norm of the vectors in the 3-dimensional vector space. (54)
scalar, vector, vector, bivector.
Indeed, J k† J k is never equal to 1.
Therefore, the spin of any boson in particle physics The bivector u1u2 has a property such that its square
 u1u2 
2
requires a description other than the matrix representa-  u1u2u1u2  u12u122 . If the signatures u12  u22  1

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

 D. GRUCKER 935

or u12  u22  1,  u1u2   1 . It can be shown that

2
nx   x n (60)
u1u2  i forms a natural subalgebra equivalent to com-
plex numbers z  x  yu1u2 . The bivector i is called a The vector x  x can therefore be written −nxn.
pseudoscalar which anticommutes with vectors u1 and u2. Geometrically, the transformation x   nxn represents
An arbitrary linear sum over the four basis elements is a reflection in the plane x, n. To make a rotation we need
called a itmultivector: two such reflections:

A  a0  a1u1  a2u2  a3i (55) x  mn x nm (61)

with components ai   . with mn nm = 1 [7]. The multivector R ≡ mn is called a

rotor and R  = nm is called the “reverse” of R. R satis-
The sum of two multivectors is obtained by adding   R = 1 is defined as “unimodular”.
each component and the geometric product is obtained fying R R = R
from the multiplication table (Table 2). The bilinear transformation of vectors is a very general
We can notice that the same algebraic properties are way of handling rotations which can easily be general-
obtained by using the {1, u1, u2, i = u2u1} basis vectors ized to vector spaces of any dimension [7].
In three dimensions we have the geometric algebra of
(where ~ indicates a reversion of vector products). Again
space with 8 elements:
i2  u12u22 is equal to −1 if the signatures are
u12  u22  1 or u12  u22  1 . 1, u1, u2 , u3 , u1u2 , u3u1, u2u3 , u1u2u3  i
(62)
The product of two multivectors AB is explicitly given 1 scalar, 3 vectors, 1 trivector
3 bivectors,
by:
Again the pseudoscalar i  u1u2u3 is defined by its

AB  a0b0  a1b1u12  a2b2u22  a3b3 1  (56)
property such that i 2  u1u2u3u1u2u3  1 , therefore the
signature of the orthonormal vectors must be one of the
a b  a b  a b u
0 1 1 0
2
2 3 2  a3b2u22 u1  
four possibilities: u12  u22  u32  1 or 
a b
0 2  a b u  a2b0  a b u u2
2
1 3 1
2
3 1 1  u2
1  u  1 and u  1 or
2
2
2
3 
 a0b3  a1b2  a2b1  a3b0  i u2
1  u  1 and u
2
3
2
2  1 or

and the square of a multivector is u2


A2  a02  a12u12  a22u22  a32 1
 2  a0 a1u1  a0 a2u2  a0 a3i 
2  u32  1 and u12  1 .
Contrary to the 2-dimensional case, varying the order
 (57)
of bivectors does not give the same algebraic properties.
By choosing the bivectors:

Unit multivectors are characterized by:

1  u1u2 , 2  u3u1, 3  u2u3 (63)

A2  1   a0  1, a1  a2  a3  0  u12 , u22

or a0  0, a12u12  a22u22  a32  1
Rotation in geometric algebra is based on a theorem by
Hamilton: given any unit vector n (n2 = 1), we can re-
solve an arbitrary vector x into parts parallel and perpen-
dicular to n: x  x  x . These components are identi-
fied algebraically through their commutation properties:
nx  x n
Table 2. Multiplication table for geometric algebra in two
dimensions.
1 u1 u2
2 2
u1 u1
1
i u u2
for the basis of the 3-dimensional vector space, we have
(58) the relation defining the quaternion algebra:
 12  22  32  12 3  1 (64)
which is only valid with the signatures:
u12  u22  u32  1 (65)
The important property given by Equation (64) is that
the trivector i commutes not only with vectors but also
(59)
with bivectors.
The multiplication table for 3-dimensional geometric
algebra with the signatures, in order to have the general
case, is given in Table 3.
i The product of two multivectors is given explicitly by:
R  AB  R01  R1u1  R2u2  R3u3  R4 1
1

(66)
u2 i u22 1 u22u1  R5 2  R6 3  R7i
i u12u2 u22u1 1
with

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

936 D. GRUCKER

Table 3. Multiplication table for geometric algebra in three dimensions.

1 u1 u2 u3 u1u2 u3u1 u 2 u3 i
u1 u121 u1u2 u3u1 u12u2 u12u3 i u12u2u3
u2 u1u2 u221 u 2 u3 u22u1 i u22u3 u22u3u1
u3 u3u1 u2u3 2
u1
3 i uu2
3 1
u u2 2
3
u32u1u2
u1u2 u12u2 u22u1 i u12u221 u12u2u3 u22u3u1 u12u22u3
u3u1 u u32
1 i u u
2
3 1
u u2u3
2
1
u u 1
2
1
2
3
2
u u u2
3 1
u12u32u2
u 2 u3 i u22u3 u32u2 u22u3u1 u32u1u2 u22u321 u22u32u1
i u u2u3
2
1
u u3u1
2
2
u u u2
2
3 1
u u u 3
2
1
2
2
u u u 2
2
1
2
3
u u u
2
2
2
3 1 1

R0  a0 b0  a1b1u12  a2 b2 u22  a3b3u32 scalar components of Jz are equal to zero. Since this rela-
tion applies to the other two spin equations, every Jx, Jy
 a4 b4 u12 u22  a5b5u12 u32  a6 b6 u22 u32  a7 b7
and Jz have no scalar and no pseudoscalar components.
R1  a0 b1  a1b0  a2 b4 u22  a3b5u32 The first spin equation gives the following 6 equations:
 a4 b2 u22  a5b3u32  a6 b7 u22 u32  a7 b6 u22 u32  
2 x3 y5u32  x5 y3u32  x4 y2u22  x2 y4u22   z6u22u32
R2  a0 b2  a b u  a b u  a b u 2 x y u  x y u  x y u  x y u   z u u
2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2
1 4 1 2 0 2 3 6 3
1 4 1 4 1 1 6 3 3 3 6 3 5 1 3
a bu a b u u a b u a b u u
2 2 2 2 2 2
4 1 1 5 7 1 3 6 3 3 7 5 1 3
2 x y u  x y u  x y u  x y u   z u u
2
2 6 2
2
6 2 2
2
5 1 1
2
1 5 1
2 2
4 1 2
R3  a0 b3  a b u  a b u  a3b0
2 2
(68)
2 x y  x y  x y u  x y u   z u
1 5 1 2 6 2 2 2 2
a b u u a bu a b u a b u u
2 2
4 7 1 2
2
5 1 1
2
6 2 2
2 2
7 4 1 2
1 2 2 1 5 6 3 6 5 3 3 3

R4  a0 b4  a1b2  a2 b1u22  a3b7 u32 2 x y  x y  x y u  x y u   z u

3 1 1 3
2
6 4 2
2
4 6 2
2
2 2

 a4 b0  a5b6 u32  a6 b5u32  a7 b3u32 2 x y  x y  x y u  x y u   z u

2 3 3 2
2
4 5 1
2
5 4 1
2
1 1

R5  a0 b5  a1b3  a2 b7 u22  a3b1 Calculating the components of the product of two mul-
 a b u  a5b0  a b u  a b u
2 2 2 tivectors Rz  J x J y allows to retrieve the 6 previous rzk
4 6 2 6 4 2 7 2 2
factors and two new factors rz0 and rz7 for the scalar and
R6  a0 b6  a1b7 u12  a2 b3  a3b2 the pseudoscalar components of the product:
 a4 b5u12  a5b4 u12  a6 b0  a7 b1u12 Rz  rz 0u1  rz1u1  rz 2u2  rz 3u3  rz 4 1
(69)
R7  a0 b7  a1b6  a2 b5  a3b4  rz 5 2  rz 6 3  rz 7i
 a4 b3  a5b2  a6 b1  a7 b0 with
According to the previous mentioned Hamilton’s rz 0  x1 y1u12  x2 y2u22  x3 y3u32  x4 y4u12u22
theorem, any multivector A can be resolved in a com-  x5 y5u12u32  x6 y6u22u32
muting (perpendicular) part: Ca and anticommuting (par-
rz 7  x1 y6  x2 y5  x3 y4  x4 y3  x5 y2  x6 y1
allel) part: Ja, therefore:
therefore
A  Ca  J a (67)
1
with Rz  J x J y  rz 01 
2
 J x J y  J y J x   rz 7i
Ca  a0 1  a7 i (70)
1
 rz 01  rz 7i  iJ z
J a  a1u1  a2 u2  a3u3  a4 1  a5 2  a6 3 2
because 1 and i commute with all the elements of a mul- An analogous derivation gives:
tivector.   J J  r 1 1  J J  J J   r i
R z y x z0 y x x y z7
If we look at the spin definition in natural units (ħ = 1) 2
(71)
given by the spin equations in a geometric algebra frame- 1
work, JxJy can be considered as anticommuting mul-  rz 01  rz 7i  iJ z
2
tivectors defining a rotation RZ in the x, y plane.
Therefore
To prove the validity of this unconventional definition
of spin 1/2, we consider the first spin equation, Rz RR  R   r 1  r i 2  1 i 2 J 2 (72)
z z z z0 z7 z
J x J y  J y J x  iJ z which can be easily calculated with 4
Equation (66). It appears that the scalar and the pseudo- where J k2 (with k = x, y, z) have only a scalar and a

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

 D. GRUCKER 937

pseudoscalar component. The important consequence is A basis for STA can be generated by a frame
that the J k2 commute. u1, u2 , u3 , u4 
of orthonormal vectors which determines
Hamilton’s theorem proves that there exists a unit vec- the pseudoscalar:
tor which resolves any vector into a perpendicular and a i  u1u2u3u4 (78)
parrallel part and u3 is a good candidate to play this role
for Rz because u3 is perpendicular to any multivector Jx In order for the pseudoscalar i to keep the same prop-
and any multivector Jy. The permutation of x,y,z shows erties as in the two- and three-dimensional cases, i2 must
that there is no incompatibility in doing so for JyJz and be equal to −1, which imposes two signature combina-
JzJx. We retrieve the relation (65): tions which are called the metric of STA. One possibility
to fulfill i2 = −1 is that three signatures should be equal to
u12  u22  u32  1 (73) 1 and the fourth equal to −1, the second possibility is that
and find the 3 relations for Rk R  1: three signatures should be equal to −1 and the fourth
k
equal to 1. The metrics are defined by 1,1,1, 1 and
   r 1  r i 2  1 J 2  1
Rz R 1, 1, 1,1 . The 3 orthonormal vectors with identical
z z0 z7 z
4
signature will be associated with the space components
   r 1  r i 2  1 J 2  1
Ry R (74) x,y,z and the other with the time component t so that:
y y0 y7 y
4
i 2  u x2u 2y u z2ut2  1 (79)
   r 1  r i 2  1 J 2  1
Rx R x x0 x7 x
4 By forming all distinct products of the four uk we ob-
Therefore a spin 1/2 (S1/2) can be defined in geomet- tain a complete basis for STA consisting of 24 = 16 line-
ric algebra as a set of 3 rotors: arly independent elements.
There are 12 bivectors obtained from the arrangement
Rz  J x J y , R y  J z J x , Rx  J y J z (75)
of 2 out of the 4 orthonormal vectors, but there are only 6
As Rk are unimodular vectors, they preserve the mag- with different magnitudes:
nitude of multivectors. Equations (68) and (69) show that u x u y  u y u x  1 u x ut  ut u x   1
the solution for the component values of the set of the 3
rotors depends on the signatures of the orthonormal vec- u z u x  u x u z  2 u y ut  ut u y   2 (80)
tors. u y u z  u z u y  3 u z ut  ut u z   3
In summary, in geometric algebra a spin 1/2 is a set of
3 rotations obtained from the product of two multivectors As regards trivectors, there are 24 products to be ob-
which are the linear summation of 3 orthonormal vectors tained from the arrangement of 3 out of the 4 orthonor-
u, u, u and 3 bivectors , , according to: mal vectors. There are 8 distinct products and only four-
having different magnitudes:
J k  k1u1  k2 u2  k3u3  k4 1  k5  2  k6 3
k   x, y, z (76) iut
u x u y u z  u x u z u y   0
ut2
with 12   22   22  1  2 3  1
iu x
which fulfill the spin equations: u y ut u z  u y u z ut   1
u x2
 J x J y   u1u2u3J z (77) (81)
iu y
u x ut u z  u x u z ut    2
and the permutation of (x,y,z). u 2y
It can be noticed that the only solution if we try to iu z
solve the spin equations in the two-dimensional case, is u x ut u y  u x u y ut   3
u z2
J x  J y  J z  0 . This result is not surprising because in
two dimensions, rotations commute and We can verify that i anticommutes with vectors and
JxJ y  J yJx  0 . trivectors but commutes with bivectors.
A complete basis for STA is:
4.2. Spacetime Algebra
1 scalar :1
According to Hestenes [5], the standard model for space- 4 vectors : u1 , u2 , u3 , u4 
time is a real 4D Minkowski spacetime with vector addi-
tion and scalar multiplication where we can impose the 6 trivectors : 3 ,3  (82)
geometric product defined by equations 45 to 51 in order 4 pseudovectors :  
to generate a geometric algebra called spacetime algebra
1 pseudoscalar : i
(STA).

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

938 D. GRUCKER

According to the 3-dimensional geometric algebra metric-dependent categories. If the 12 spins 1/2 of each
case we have the quaternion relation (64) for the  category were sorted as a function of bivectors we would
bivectors. By adequately choosing the bivectors of the find 3 families of 4 spins 1/2 as in elementary particle
vector space basis, the 3 new bivectors σk fulfill the fol- physics.
lowing quaternion relation: As the definition of rotation given by Equation (61)
applies whatever the dimension of the vector space, in
 i1    i 2    i 3    i1  i 2   i 3   1 (83)
2 2 2
four dimensions the spin 1 can be defined by set of 3
The four pseudovectors are: ξ0 the pseudoscalar of di- rotors:
mension 3 and the three other ξk which, again, fulfill a
Rz 4  J x 4 J y 4 , Ry 4  J z 4 J y 4 , Rx 4  J y 4 J z 4
quaternion relation between the geometric product of the
time orthonormal vector and ξk: with J k  k1u1  k2u2  k3u3  k4u4  k5 1
(92)
 ut1 
2
  ut 2    ut 3 
2 2  k6  2  k7 3  k8 1  k9 2  k10 3  k110
(84)  k121  k13 2  k143 k   x, y, z
  ut 1  ut 2  ut 3   1
The 3 quaternion relations are verified with the metric where the Jk fulfill the spin equations. From the gener-
1,1,1, 1 and the choice of the basis defined by Equa- alization to 4 dimensions of the vector product given by
tions (80) and (81). Equation (66), it is easy to see that the scalar component
For the other metric, Equation (84) is still valid, but to is null because real components commute and the pseudo
keep the quaternion relations (63) and (83) for bivectors, scalar component is null because its parts are independ-
we have to consider another basis where ent of the signatures. As the Rk are unimodular vectors,
2   2  u xu z , which corresponds to reverse rotations they induce rotations which preserve the norm of any
in the x,z plane. vector. Again the solution to the equations which deter-
If we consider the geometric algebra definition of spin mine the components of the multivectors Jk is dependent
1/2 given by Equations (76) to (77) we retrieve the spin on the signature of the orthonormal vectors. Therefore
1/2 characterized by the 6-element multivector: there are 4 different solutions with space-like signatures
u x2  u 2y  u z2  1 and time-like signature ut2  1 and
S x, y , z ,1 ux , u y , uz , 1 , 2 , 3 z  (85)
12 different solutions if we consider each signature in-
but in the 4-dimensional vector space there are two other dependently.
spins 1/2:
5. Conclusion
S x , y , z ,2 u x , u y , u z ,i 1 ,i 2 ,i 3
(86) We have shown that for the two-dimensional complex

 u x , u y , u z , u z2ut2 1 , u 2y ut2  2 , u x2ut2 3  vector space, the spin matrices can be calculated directly
from the angular momentum commutator definition. We
S x , y , z ,3 u x , u y , u z , ut1 , ut 2 , ut3 have retrieved the 3 Pauli matrices and found 23 other
(87)

 u x , u y , u z , ut2 1 , ut2  2 , ut2 3  triplet solutions. When extended to the three-dimensional
space, we have shown that there is no matrix which pre-
for the metric 1,1,1, 1 . For the other metric with the serves the norm of the vectors and fulfills the spin equa-
other basis there are three new spins 1/2 obtained from tions. By using a geometric algebra with a vector prod-
the 3 vectors ux, uy and uz: uct which combines a commuting product and an anti-
commuting product it has been possible in four-dimen-
 
, 
S x , y , z ,4 ux , u y , uz , 1 ,  2 3 (88) sional spacetime to retrieve the 24 different spins 1/2
defined as 12 clockwise and 12 counter-clockwise rota-
S x , y , z ,5 u , u , u , u u  , u u  , u u  
x y z
2 2
z t 1
2 2
y t 2
2 2
x t 3 (89) tions. These rotations are characterized by anticommut-
ing parts composed of 3 vectors and 3 bivectors which
S x , y , z ,6 u , u , u , u  , u  , u  
x y z
2
t 1
2
t 2
2
t 3 (90) fulfill the spin equations. Spin 1 can be defined as 3 rota-
tions characterized by 4 vectors, 6 bivectors and 4
There are 18 other spins 1/2 obtained with the different trivectors which fulfill the spin equations. These uni-
vectors of the 4-dimensional case and the same bivectors: modular spin 1 rotations preserve the magnitude of mul-
S x , y ,t ,1..6 , S x , z ,t ,1..6 , S y , z ,t ,1..6 (91) tivectors. There are 12 different spins 1 depending on the
signature of the 4 orthonormal vectors of the four-di-
Therefore the 24 spins 1/2 found with the matrix deri- mensional vector space. The correspondence between
vation are retrieved in the STA description but here with this derivation and particle physics is perhaps fortuitous
a clear distinction between spins 1/2 which fall in two but the use of STA offers the advantage of formulating

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JMP

 D. GRUCKER
conventional relativistic physics in invariant form with-
out reference to a coordinate system [5] and it seems
promising to analyze how time evolution and spin inter-
action can be used in order to predict the gyromagnetic
ratio of the proton and the neutron.
6. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Jacques Baudon, Edward Belaga,
Jules Grucker, Tarek Khalil, Jean Richert, Kees van
Schenk Brill for enlightening, and Nathalie Heider for
liberating my mind.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Fröhlich, “Spin or Actually: Spin and Quantum Statis-
tics p1-60 in The Spin, Poincaré Seminar 2007,” B. Du-
plantier, J. M. Raimond and V. Rivasseau, Eds., Birk-
häuser, Basel, 2009.
[2] C. Cohen-Tannoudji, B. Diu and F. Laloë, “Quantum Me-
chanics,” Wiley, New York, 1977.
Copyright © 2013 SciRes.
939
[3] P. A. M. Dirac, “The Principles of Quantum Mechanics,”
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1930, pp. 157-162,281-
285.
[4] D. Hestenes, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 47, 1979,
p. 399. doi:10.1119/1.11806
[5] D. Hestenes, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 71, 2003,
pp. 691-714. doi:10.1119/1.1571836
[6] D. Hestenes, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 71, 2003,
pp. 104-121. doi:10.1119/1.1522700
[7] S. Gull, A. Lasenby and C. Doran, Foundations of Phys-
ics, Vol. 23, 1993, pp. 1175-1201.
doi:10.1007/BF01883676
[8] C. Doran, A. Lasenby and S. Gull, Foundations of Phys-
ics, Vol. 23, 1993, pp. 1239-1264.
doi:10.1007/BF01883678
[9] J. Lasenby, A. N. Lasenby and C. J. L. Doran, Philoso-
phical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Vol. 358, 2000,
pp. 21-39. doi:10.1098/rsta.2000.0517
JMP