Understanding how the orbital motion of electrons is coupled to the spin degree of freedom in nanoscale systems is central for applications in spin-based electronics and quantum computation. We demonstrate this coupling of spin and orbit in a carbon nanotube quantum dot in the general multi-electron regime in presence of finite disorder. Further, we find a strong systematic dependence of the spin-orbit coupling on the electron occupation of the quantum dot. This dependence, which even includes a sign change is not demonstrated in any other system and follows from the curvature-induced spin-orbit split Dirac-spectrum of the underlying graphene lattice. Our findings unambiguously show that the spin-orbit coupling is a general property of nanotube quantum dots which provide a unique platform for the study of spin-orbit effects and their applications.
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