Twisted Spin in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

In quantum mechanics, it is often thought that the spin of an object points in a fixed direction at any point in time. For example, after selecting the z-direction as the axis of quantization, a spin-1/2 object (such as an electron) may either point up or down. The spin can also be a linear combination of these two states, in which case, there is an axis in another direction in which the spin points in that direction. In this article, we focus on the spin-spin-1/2 case and point out that spin may not necessarily point in a fixed direction, a phenomenon that we call twisted spin. We argue that twisted spin occurs in nature, that at least some degree of twisting is generic, and propose an experiment to verify its existence.