Comment on the Paper "Stern-Gerlach Force on a Precessing Magnetic Moment" by M. Conte et al

TL;DR

This paper critiques a previous claim about the Stern-Gerlach force on a precessing magnetic moment, demonstrating that including full spin motion removes the predicted gamma-squared momentum change, resolving the inconsistency.

Contribution

It clarifies the theoretical calculation of the Stern-Gerlach force on a precessing magnetic moment, correcting previous misconceptions by including complete spin dynamics.

Findings

The gamma-squared momentum change prediction is invalid when full spin motion is considered.

Including complete spin dynamics aligns the theory with established interaction Lagrangian.

The critique resolves the inconsistency in the previous claim about the Stern-Gerlach force.

Abstract

The claim in ref.1 [M. Conte et al: "Stern-Gerlach Force on a Precessing Magnetic Moment", Proceedings of PAC07 (http://cern.ch/AccelConf/p07/PAPER/THPAS105.pdf)] that the Stern-Gerlach force on a charged particle with a magnetic moment causes a change in longitudinal momentum proportional to gamma-squared when it traverses a specially configured localized electromagnetic field, contradicts the prediction based on the established interaction Lagrangian. It is shown that extending the calculation in ref. 1 to include the entire spin motion eliminates the gamma-squared term and thus the inconsistency.