Polarization of spin-1/2 particles in an axisymmetric magnetic field

The present paper shows that the nature of the polarization of charged spin-1/2 particles moving in a uniform magnetic field changes dramatically in a relatively weak transverse axisymmetric magnetic field. The direction along which the spin projection is quantized has a fixed orientation with respect to the axes of a cylindrical coordinate system and can form a substantial angle with the direction of the uniform magnetic field. The presence of spin quantization is proved both by the fact that the commutator of the Hamiltonian operator and the projection of the polarization operator in the direction of quantization is zero and by analyzing the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation for this given case. Finally, the possibilities of detecting this effect and utilizing it are discussed.