Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein.

[Clau]

If we have indistinguishable particles, we must use Fermi-Dirac statistics.
To Identical and indistinguishable particles, we use Bose-Einstein statistics.
And, to distinguishable classical particles we use Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics.

I have a system of identical but distinguishable particles, where the second level has a degeneracy.

I was reading at Wikipedia: "Degenerate gases are gases composed of fermions that have a particular configuration which usually forms at high densities."

My question is: Should I use Fermi-Dirac statistics in this case?

I'm confused. I was reading Reif and it seems that I should use Maxwell-Boltzmann just to nondegenerate gases. But if my system is made by distinguishable particles, it seems that I should use MB statistics.

 

[vanesch]

I'm not an expert on this and if I'm making an error, please correct me. But I thought that distinguishability is the key element, which determines that one should use the MB statistics. The MB statistics is ALSO a good approximation to the other distributions in certain limiting cases (such as dilute media), but I thought that if we deal with distinguishable components, that MB was exact. (the problem being, of course, that there do not exist systems of distinguishable elementary particles in nature)