Identical Fermions in an infinite square well

In summary, there is a discussion about the state of 2 identical, noninteracting Fermions in an infinite 1 dimensional square well. One person suggests a state with spin-up and spin-down particles in the ground state, while another person references Griffiths' solution which does not have the same energy state. It is mentioned that the first person's solution is antisymmetric, an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian, and has lower energy than the Griffiths solution, but there is a clarification that fermions in Quantum Mechanics only refer to particles with fermi-dirac statistics, and the equivalence of spin1/2 particles and fermions is only in relativistic quantum field theory.
  • #1
msumm21
247
28
If you have 2 identical, noninteracting Fermions in an infinite 1 dimensional square well of width a, I was thinking the state would be:
[tex]\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\psi_1(x_1)\psi_1(x_2)(\uparrow\downarrow - \downarrow\uparrow )[/tex]
where [tex]\psi_1[/tex] is the ground state of the single particle well problem.

However, I just looked in Griffths "Introduction to QM, 2nd Ed" and it says there is no state with the energy of that state and that in fact the ground state is [tex]\psi_1(x_1)\psi_2(x_2)-\psi_2(x_1)\psi_1(x_2)[/tex].

The state I gave seems to be (1) antisymmetric, (2) an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian, and (3) have lower energy than the ground state given by Griffths.

Do you see a problem with ground state I gave?
 
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  • #2
You've put two fermions on the ground state of the potential, with their spin making up a singlet. I think your GS is fine. Griffith's solution may be referred to spinless particles.
 
  • #3
In the same line as jrlaguna said, fermions in QM just refers to particles with fermi-dirac statistics. The equivalence of spin1/2 particles and fermions are only in relativistic quantum field theory.
 

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