Explaining the Paulì exclusion principle

The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical principle which states that two or more identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin- intrinsic angular momentum value of fermions is times a half-integer) cannot occupy the same quantum state within a quantum system simultaneously.

This principle was formulated by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925 for electrons, and later extended to all fermions with his spin–statistics theorem of 1940.

In the case of electrons in atoms, it can be stated as follows: it is impossible for two electrons of a poly-electron atom (atom containing more than one electron) to have the same values of the four quantum numbers: n, the principal quantum number; ℓ, the azimuthal quantum number; mℓ, the magnetic quantum number; and ms, the spin quantum number.

For example, if two electrons reside in the same orbital, then their n, ℓ, and mℓ values are the same; therefore their ms must be different, and thus the electrons must have opposite half-integer spin projections of 1/2 and −1/2.

Particles with an integer spin, or bosons, are not subject to the Pauli exclusion principle: any number of identical bosons can occupy the same quantum state, as with, for instance, photons produced by a laser or atoms in a Bose–Einstein condensate.

A more rigorous statement is that, concerning the exchange of two identical particles, the total (many-particle) wave function is antisymmetric for fermions, and symmetric for bosons. This means that if the space and spin coordinates of two identical particles are interchanged, then the total wave function changes its sign for fermions and does not change for bosons.

If two fermions were in the same state (for example the same orbital with the same spin in the same atom), interchanging them would change nothing and the total wave function would be unchanged.

The only way the total wave function can both change sign as required for fermions and also remain unchanged is that this function must be zero everywhere, which means that the state cannot exist. This reasoning does not apply to bosons because the sign does not change.

The Pauli exclusion principle helps explain a wide variety of physical phenomena. One particularly important consequence of the principle is the elaborate electron shell structure of atoms and the way atoms share electrons, explaining the variety of chemical elements and their chemical combinations.

In conductors and semiconductors, there are very large numbers of molecular orbitals which effectively form a continuous band structure of energy levels. In strong conductors (metals) electrons are so degenerate that they cannot even contribute much to the thermal capacity of a metal. Many mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical and chemical properties of solids are the direct consequence of Pauli exclusion.

In 1995 Elliott Lieb and coworkers showed that the Pauli principle still leads to stability in intense magnetic fields such as in neutron stars, although at a much higher density than in ordinary matter. It is a consequence of general relativity that, in sufficiently intense gravitational fields, matter collapses to form a black hole.

You Might Also Like :