Quantum Indistiguishability: Spin Statistics without Relativity or Field Theory?

Michael Berry, Jonathan M. Robbins

Lawrence Paul Horwitz, Rafael I Arshansky

A. P. Balachandran, Alan Daughton, Z.-C. GU +3 more

Conventional proofs of the spin–statistics theorem either use relativistic quantum field theory or concern field theory solitons. We here construct new proofs of this theorem for spinning particles. They are extensions of previous work on spinless particles and require neither relativity nor field theory. They do, however, assume certain continuity conditions involving the existence of antiparticles. Non-Abelian statistics, such as parastatistics and braid statistics of order 2 or more, are excluded in our framework.

Jonathan Bain

Chapter 5 addresses the question, “What explains CPT invariance and the spin–statistics connection (SSC)?” It first considers why we should care about explaining CPT invariance and the SSC. It then argues that the CPT and spin–statistics theorems cannot be said to provide the sought after explanations. It offers instead an explanation of the SSC in interacting non-relativistic theories. This explanation explains by virtue of a derivation from non-fundamental principles in non-interacting relativistic quantum field theories (RQFTs), and an explication of intertheoretic relations between interacting RQFTs, non-interacting RQFTs, and interacting non-relativistic theories. The chapter ends by arguing that the presence of both the SSC and CPT invariance in realistic interacting RQFTs cannot be explained by even this type of explanation, and that currently, the existence problem precludes a full understanding of these properties in realistic interacting RQFTs.

Michael Berry, Jonathan M. Robbins

Michael Berry

We review the formulation of quantum mechanics for identical spinning particles with wavefunctions that are singlevalued when permuted configurations are identified. The identification requires the spins to be smoothly permuted along with position variables, so spin is represented in a position-dependent ‘transported basis’, rather than the usual fixed basis. The simplest transported basis, constructed in terms of spins represented as pairs of commuting harmonic oscillators, gives the correct connection between spin and statistics. More complicated constructions can give the wrong exchange sign. The theory is generalized to incorporate additional properties such as isospin, color and strangeness. Some remarks about the relation between this approach and those based on relatitivity and/or field theory are given.