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Pauli Exclusion



A few days ago I was teaching the Pauli Exclusion Principle and stated that in
its most general form this is stated as;

On the interchange of any two particles the wavefunction for a system
of fermions is anti-symmetric.

This followed a discussion of electrons being indistinguishable particles.

So up pops a student and asks "if electrons are really
indistinguishable why does it make ANY difference to the wavefunction
if two electrons are interchanged. Why should even just the sign
change on performing an interchange between two supposedly identical
particles?

Any thoughts? I am looking for a conceptual response that meets the
question at the appropriate level if possible. But I am also
interested in any more fundamental explanation.

But I am sorry to say that I am not interested in responses from John Denker.


eric scerri



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Dr. Eric Scerri ,
UCLA,
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry,
607 Charles E. Young Drive East,
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569
USA

E-mail : scerri@chem.ucla.edu
tel: 310 206 7443
fax: 310 206 2061
Web Page: http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/scerri/index.html

Editor of Foundations of Chemistry
http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/1386-4238

Also see International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry
http://www.georgetown.edu/earleyj/ISPC.html