An alternative formalism for modeling spin

Sam Powers; Dejan Stojkovic

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10652-y

2021 Impact factor 4.991

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2022) 82: 690
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10652-y

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

An alternative formalism for modeling spin

Sam Powers^a and Dejan Stojkovic

HEPCOS, Department of Physics, SUNY at Buffalo, 14260-1500, Buffalo, NY, USA

^a sampower@buffalo.edu

Received: 29 May 2022
Accepted: 27 July 2022
Published online: 9 August 2022

Abstract

We present an alternative formalism for modeling spin. The ontological elements of this formalism are base-2 sequences of length n. The machinery necessary to model physics is then developed by considering correlations between base-2 sequences. Upon choosing a reference base-2 sequence, a relational system of numbers can be defined, which we interpret as quantum numbers. Based on the properties of these relational quantum numbers, the selection rules governing interacting spin systems are derived from first principles. A tool for calculating the associated probabilities, which are the squared Clebsch–Gordan coefficients in quantum mechanics, is also presented. The resulting model offers a vivid information theoretic picture of spin and interacting spin systems. Importantly, this model is developed without making any assumptions about the nature of space-time, which presents an interesting opportunity to study emergent space-time models.

© The Author(s) 2022

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