MICROSCOPIC STERN-GERLACH EFFECT AND SPIN-ORBIT PENDULUM

The motion of a particle with a spin in spherical harmonic oscillator potential with spin-orbit interaction is discussed. The attention is f ocused on the spatial motion of wave packets. The particular case of w ave packets moving along the circular orbits for which the most transp arent and pedagogical description is possible is considered. The split ting of the wave packets into two components moving differently along classical orbits reflects a strong analogy with the Stern-Gerlach expe riment. The periodic transfer of average angular momentum between spin and orbital subspaces accompanying this time evolution is called the spin-orbit pendulum.