Friday, May 6, 2016

quantum mechanics - Spin, orbital angular momentum and total angular momentum


If I understand correctly, spin is an intrinsic property of particles, which follows the algebra of angular momentum, but has nothing to do with an "orbital angular momentum" in that the particle is not like a small sphere that rotates on itself, to which we could attribute an angular momentum as usual in classical mechanics, cf. this and this Phys.SE posts.


My question is: why does spin combine with orbital angular momentum to give total angular momentum? To me this is surprising, as spin, in fact, has nothing to do with a classical angular momentum. Any insight on that?




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