söndag 11 januari 2026

Leibniz's PII vs RealQM vs StdQM

Leibniz's Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles PII clashes with the basic idea of identical particles of textbook StdQM: If the electrons of a molecule are identical, that is indiscernible, then they would according to Leibniz be identical and so there would be only one electron present, maybe then in the form of a super-electron distributed over the molecule? 

Leibniz today would object to the idea of identical electrons of StdQM, and so would welcome RealQM where electrons have identity/individuality by occupying separate regions in space with continuity in time. 

Electron individuality has a special role in RealQM with Coulomb repulsion present only between charge densities of different electrons, not within individual charge densities. 

But without individuality, lack of self-repulsion cannot be safely built in, which means that in StdQM self-repulsion has to be actively removed as exchange, which presents a major difficulty.

Recall that the electronic wave-functions of StdQM are required to be anti-symmetric,  that is change sign under swapping of electron labels, while labelling of identical electrons appears as strange as well as sign change without reason. 


1 kommentar:

  1. Maybe I asked before but would it be possible to split an electron in realqm?

    SvaraRadera