PHY 314: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Varsha 2014

Lecture 19
Anil Shaji
School of Physics, IISER Thiruvananthapuram
Identical particles. Exchange forces.

So far the universe that we were dealing with in this course consisted of really only one particle.
Even in the case of the Hydrogen atom, the proton was simply a source for the potential in which
the electron was moving and we focused entirely on finding the wave function of the electron. While
theoretical investigations of such simple systems in detail was actually possible without resorting to
numerical techniques, the flip side is that direct experimental observations of these systems is even
now rather challenging. So one would like to understand theoretically, as far as possible, quantum
systems which are more complicated than just a single particle with the aim of computing things
related to systems that are accessible experimentally. If what is computed match what is observed,
then that further solidifies the position quantum mechanics as a theory of the physical universe.

I.

TWO PARTICLES

Let us make a modest start and introduce a second quantum system into our present universe
that has only one quantum system in it. The wave function for the combined system is denoted by
(~r1 , ~r2 , t).
As usual, the wave function satisfies the Schrodinger equation,
i~

= H,
t

H=

~2 2
~2 2
1
+ V (~r1 , ~r2 , t).
2m1
2m2 2

It should be noted that is a function of six space and one time variables and it is emphatically not
true that , in general, is a product of two functions of three space variables each. The grouping
together of the degrees of freedom associated with each particle into ~r1 and ~r2 is simply a matter of
~ t) where ~ = (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ).
convenience. We might very well denote the wave function as (,
The statistical interpretation of
|(~r1 , ~r2 , t)|2 d3~r1 d3~r2 ,
carries over from the one particle case as the probability of finding one of the particles in a small
volume around ~r1 and the other in a small volume around ~r2 at time t. The normalization condition
reads
Z
|(~r1 , ~r2 , t)|2 d3~r1 d3~r2 = 1.
If the potential is time independent we have
(~r1 , ~r2 , t) = (~r1 , ~r2 )eiEt/~ ,

H = E.

2
A.

Identical particles

From the beginning of this course we have been giving much attention to the fact that quantum
mechanics is a theory of physical systems that are not accessible directly to our senses. For this
reason, we have to assume that all the information that a quantum particle gives us is a set of
quantum numbers. I am including things like mass, charge etc, in addition to the familiar ones
like n, l and m, under the purview of what is referred to as quantum numbers. Keeping this in
mind let us consider a two particle state in which one of the particles is in a one particle state
denoted by a and the other is in another one particle state denoted by b . I repeat here again
that the two particle state being simply a combination of two one particle states is a special case
in quantum mechanics. In general most two particle states are not of this form. Pressing on, we
might be tempted to write the state as
(~r1 , ~r2 , t) = a (~r1 )b (~r2 ).
If the two particles only give us their respective quantum numbers as information about them and
no further clues about their respective identities is forthcoming, one might be tempted to ask on
what basis we assigned particle 1 to state a and particle 2 to the state b ? Strictly speaking, there
is no way in which one can distinguish one particle from the other unless they differ in their mass,
charge etc. If the two particles we are dealing with are of the same species, say, electrons, there
is no way of telling one apart from the other. This situation never appears in classical mechanics.
One can always tell two particles apart (at least one assumes that this is true even if a lot of effort
might be needed to distinguish them in practice). Quantum particles, on the other hand, can be
indistinguishable in principle.
So the solution to the problem of not being able to assign each particle to a particular state is
to non committal about the whole thing and write the state as


(~r1 , ~r2 , t) = A a (~r1 )b (~r2 ) a (~r2 )b (~r1 ) ,

(1)

where A is a normalization constant. We notice that there are two ways of writing the wave
function of two indistinguishable particles. Either we construct a wave function that is symmetric
under the exchange of the two particles or one that is antisymmetric under their exchange. This
follows from fact that and differ from only an overall, undetectable, phase.
We now have a classification of all particles in nature depending on whether the two particle
(or multi particle) wave functions for them are symmetric or antisymmetric under the exchange
of two of the particles. Particles with symmetric wave functions are called Bosons and those with
antisymmetric wave functions are called Fermions.
Taking a slight detour, we recall that in our discussion of quantum angular momentum and
spin, we found that the total angular momentum (or spin) can take either integer or half integer
values (so that the magnetic quantum number m can go from l to l in integer steps). Orbital
angular momentum is related to the way a particle moves but spin is intrinsic to each particle. So
we can classify all particles, again into two families, based on whether the particle has integer or
half integer spin. It turns out that

3
All integer spin particles are bosons.
All half integer spin particles are fermions.
This connection between the symmetry of two particle wave functions and the spin of the
particles is called the spin-statistics connection. This is recognized as a fundamental principle
of nature although our understanding of why it is true is hidden in a lot of rather complicated
arguments.
We can now see the first nontrivial consequence of having two particles, instead of one, in the
universe we consider. Two identical fermions cannot occupy the same (one particle) state because
if they do


(~r1 , ~r2 , t) = A a (~r1 )a (~r2 ) a (~r2 )a (~r1 ) = 0
This is the Pauli exclusion principle. Note that the exclusion principle arises just out of the
antisymmetry of the wave function and does not even require the two fermions to interact with
each other.
To sum up one can say that the requirement
(~r1 , ~r2 , t) = (~r1 , ~r2 , t),
can be treated as a new law in quantum mechanics arising from the indistinguishability of quantum
particles. We refer to this law as the symmetrization requirement.
In principle, the symmetrization requirement holds for all identical particles irrespective of
whether they are close together or far apart. In practice, however, if the states a and b do
not overlap then the rough location of the two particles can be used to distinguish between the
two. So one does not normally extend the symmetrization requirement to unreasonable extents
and require that the combined wave function of an electron here and another in the next galaxy
be antisymmetric under exchange when doing a calculation that pertains to the electron here in
the lab.

1.

Exchange forces

Let us take a simple example of a one dimensional system of two particles and look at the mean
squared separation between the two particles if each one could occupy one of two possible one
particle states, a and b . We start with a few definitions:
Z
hxia,b =
dx x |a,b (x)|2 = ha |x|a i or hb |x|b i
Z
2
hx ia,b =
dx x2 |a,b (x)|2 = ha |x2 |a i or hb |x2 |b i
Z
hxiab =
dx x a (x)b (x) = ha |x|b i.

The quantity we are interested in is

h(x1 x2 )2 i = hx21 i + hx22 i 2hx1 x2 i.

4
Case 1: Distinguishable particles
If the two particles are distinguishable,
(x1 , x2 ) = a (x1 )b (x2 ).
Both a and b are normalized states. We can now compute the following,
Z
Z
Z
2
2
2
2
2
hx1 i =
dx1 dx2 x1 |(x1 , x2 )| = dx1 x1 |a (x1 )|
dx2 |b (x2 )|2 = hx2 ia
Z
Z
Z
2
2
2
2
hx2 i =
dx1 dx2 x2 |(x1 , x2 )| = dx1 |a (x1 )|
dx2 x22 |b (x2 )|2 = hx2 ib
Z
Z
Z
2
2
dx2 x2 |b (x2 )|2 = hxia hxib .
hx1 x2 i =
dx1 dx2 x1 x2 |(x1 , x2 )| = dx1 x1 |a (x1 )|
So we have
h(x1 x2 )2 id = hx2 ia + hx2 ib 2hxia hxib .

(2)

Case 2: Indistinguishable particles


1 
(x1 , x2 ) = a (x1 )b (x2 ) b (x1 )a (x2 ).
2
Z
Z
1
2
2
2
dx2 |b (x2 )|2
dx1 x1 |a (x1 )|
hx1 i =
2
Z
Z
+ dx1 x21 |b (x1 )|2
dx2 |a (x2 )|2
Z
Z
dx1 x21 a (x1 )b (x1 ) dx2 b (x2 )a (x2 )

Z
Z

2
dx1 x1 b (x1 )a (x1 ) dx2 a (x2 )b (x2 )
=


i 1
1h 2
hx ia + hx2 ib + 0 + 0 =
hx2 ia + hx2 ib ,
2
2

using the fact that a and b are orthogonal to each other. Similarly we get hx22 i =
and
Z
Z
1
2
hx1 x2 i =
dx1 x1 |a (x1 )|
dx2 x2 |b (x2 )|2
2
Z
Z
+ dx1 x1 |b (x1 )|2
dx2 x2 |a (x2 )|2
Z
Z
dx1 x1 a (x1 )b (x1 ) dx2 x2 b (x2 )a (x2 )

Z
Z

dx1 x1 b (x1 )a (x1 ) dx2 x2 a (x2 )b (x2 )

1
2

hx2 ia +hx2 ib


1
hxia hxib + hxia hxib hxiab hxiba hxiab hxiba
2
= hxia hxib |hxiab |2 .
=

So we have
h(x1 x2 )2 i = hx2 ia + hx2 ib 2hxia hxib 2|hxiab |2 = h(x1 x2 )2 id 2|hxiab |2 .

(3)