Fermions, Pauli and antisymmetry

[imsmooth]

How did Pauli determine his exclusion principle? Was it based on how he posited electron shells filled? Is the fact that fermions are antisymmetic a mathematical solution to make the principle work with quantum theory?

 

[PeroK]

How did Pauli determine his exclusion principle? Was it based on how he posited electron shells filled? Is the fact that fermions are antisymmetic a mathematical solution to make the principle work with quantum theory?

I don't know the historical side, but I think it became clear that there must be some principle at work to prevent all electrons reaching the ground state.

That the wave function for identical fermions must be totally antisymmetric can be derived from QFT. As far as straight QM goes, it's essentially an axiom.

There is nothing like it outside of quantum theory: it's a purely QM phenomenon.

 

[PeterDonis]

How did Pauli determine his exclusion principle?

This article gives a brief historical overview:

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200701/history.cfm

 

[imsmooth]

This article gives a brief historical overview:

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200701/history.cfm

Thank you. This is what I was looking for. As I thought, he had the insight and came up with it to explain reality.

 

[DrDu]

I think it was also Pauli who derived a first version of the spin statistics theorem.

 

[vanhees71]

Yep, Pauli (1940)

W. Pauli, The Connection Between Spin and Statistics, Phys.
Rev. 58, 716 (1940),
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.58.716.

W. Pauli and F. J. Belinfante, On the Statistical Behavior of
known and unknown elementary Particles, Physica 7, 177
(1940),
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0031-8914(40)90104-5.