- #1
teroenza
- 195
- 5
Homework Statement
I am getting confused by the QM selection rules. Photons have an angular momentum of 1. So when a transition of some sort occurs and a photon is emitted, the atom must lose 1 unit of angular momentum.
My question is, is a electron transitioning from spin up to spin down (m_s from +1/2 ---> -1/2) an appropriate way to "get rid" of the 1 unit of angular momentum? It does not make sense to me that it would because that would just be a re-orientation of the z component rather than a change in the vector itself.
This is the table I am trying to understand (for the magnetic and electric dipoles).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_rule#Summary_table
Thank you