Abstract
First a Stern-Gerlach type experiment on a beam of electrons similar to Brillouin's 1927 proposal is discussed and shown to be feasible contrary to claims in the literature. Then thecontinuous Stern-Gerlach effect for an individual electron in classical oscillatory motion along the axis of a Penning trap is introduced. The analogy is developed between the classic Stern-Gerlach effect and the continuous one, in which a magnetic bottle replaces the constant field gradient and the place of the glass plate collecting the silver atoms is taken by a meter measuring the frequency of the axial oscillation. Quantum jumps observed with this apparatus in 1977 are exhibited, demonstrating the requirement of a finite time for collapse of the wave function, and the work has been recognized as an early quantum-non-demolitionexperiment. A plot of measuredg-factors vs normalized radius for triton, proton, and electron suggests a new, 104× smaller value for the electron radius, when our electrong-value determined by magnetic resonance and the continuous Stern-Gerlach effect is used. The plot further suggests a progression of ever smaller and heavier fermions until “the” elementary particle, the “cosmon”, is reached. It was formed, when in a random quantum jump the metastable vacuum dissociated into a lone “cosmon/anticosmon” pair, whose subsequent rapid breakup initiated the Big Bang.
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