Is there something similar to the Magnus effect for electromagnetism? Would a spinning particle generate a centripetal force moving through something like a circular accelerator? And how would you calculate this?
Answer
Electron spin contributes to the centrifugal force on an electron.
Compare the wave function of the hydrogen atom for the Klein-Gordon and the Dirac equation. The KG energy values are
Enl=m√1+[α2/(n−δl)2]
with δl=l+12. The Dirac eigenvalues are obtained by replacing l→j±12. See QFT, Itzykson&Zuber, Ch. 2.3.
The reason is that the radial equation in these cases contains the centrifugal potential L2−α2r2 (KG) and J2α2r2 (Dirac). This clearly proves that electron spin like orbital angular momentum exhibits a centrifugal force.
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