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Physics World

A testing time for bosons

Oscar Wallace Greenberg

Published Jul 1, 1996• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

One of the most fundamental tenets of quantum mechanics is the symmetrization postulate, which says that all collections of identical particles must be either fermions or bosons. This postulate is the basis of the Pauli exclusion principle and gives rise to the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation.
DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/9/7/22

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In this article, we discuss the identity and indistinguishability of quantum systems and the consequent need to introduce an extra postulate in Quantum Mechanics to correctly describe situations involving indistinguishable particles. This is, for electrons, the Pauli Exclusion Principle, or in general, the Symmetrization Postulate. Then, we introduce fermions and bosons and the distributions respectively describing their statistical behaviour in indistinguishable situations. Following that, we discuss the spin-statistics connection, as well as alternative statistics and experimental evidence for all these results, including the use of bunching and antibunching of particles emerging from a beam splitter as a signature for some bosonic or fermionic states.
In this article, we discuss the identity and indistinguishability of quantum systems and the consequent need to introduce an extra postulate in Quantum Mechanics to correctly describe situations involving indistinguishable particles. This is, for electrons, the Pauli Exclusion Principle, or in general, the Symmetrization Postulate. Then, we introduce fermions and bosons and the distributions respectively describing their statistical behaviour in indistinguishable situations. Following that, we discuss the spin-statistics connection, as well as alternative statistics and experimental evidence for all these results, including the use of bunching and antibunching of particles emerging from a beam splitter as a signature for some bosonic or fermionic states.
In quantum mechanics, elementary particles of the same type are considered identical. For example, an electron in an atom could be replaced by another electron and the atom would behave in exactly the same way. Nature has taken particular advantage of this, allowing only two types of elementary particles: bosons and fermions. They differ fundamentally in how a collection of identical particles interact. Identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state (only one per state!). Identical bosons can occupy the same quantum state. The statistics of identical particles (how they act in groups) has profound affects. For example, the rich and complex structure of the periodic table arises from the principle that only one electron can occupy each quantum state. The spin and the statistics of particles are closely connected: (fermions) bosons have (half-)integer spin. (Spin is an internal angular momentum measured in units of Planck’s constant.)
It is proved within the framework of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics that identical particles are either boson or fermions. The starting assumptions are: (a) if ψ(x1 … xn) is in the space H of allowed states, then so is Pψ for every permutation P; (b) |Pψ|2 = |ψ|2 for all ψ∈H, all allowed configurations (x1 … xn), and all ψ∈H; (c) H is a vector space (principle of superposition); (d) every ψ∈H is continuous along every path in the n-particle configuration space C; and (e) there is at least one physical observable connecting each pair of irreducible components of C.
A feature of quantum mechanics is that identical particles cannot be labelled. This means that identical particles must be treated as indistinguishable and implies that if we exchange two particles in a many – particle system – e.g. the electrons in a molecule – then the wavefunction describing the system cannot change, apart from a phase factor. Besides some exotic possibilities in strictly two-dimensional systems, this phase factor has only two values: +1 and -1, which lead to symmetric and anti-symmetric wavefunctions, respectively. Particles with symmetric wavefunctions, such as photons, are called bosons, while those with anti-symmetric wavefunctions, such as electrons, are called fermions.