Spin angular momentum ladder operators

The spin angular-momentum operators obey the general angular-momentum commutation relations of Section 5.4, and it is often helpful to use spin-angular-momentum ladder operators. 

Schrodinger s equation has solutions characterized by three quantum numbers only, whereas electron spin appears naturally as a solution of Dirac s relativistic equation. As a consequence it is often stated that spin is a relativistic effect. However, the fact that half-integral angular momentum states, predicted by the ladder-operator method, are compatible with non-relativistic systems, refutes this conclusion. The non-appearance of electron... 

PROBLEM 3.5.6. One can define linear ladder operators for angular momentum (orbital or spin) the raising operator + = Lx + iLy and the lowering operator =LX — iLy. (a) Verify that brute-force expansion yields + =... 

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