Quantum without Identical Particles

[maverick_starstrider]

I'm just wondering if it's possible (if there's a paper or some such that'd be great) to derive quantum mechanics or quantum field theory WITHOUT invoking the notion of identical particles to prove things like Pauli's exclusion. Anyone know?

 

[Ken G]

Well, I don't think you would be proving the Pauli exclusion principle, since you wouldn't have that principle at all, correct?

 

[maverick_starstrider]

Well, I don't think you would be proving the Pauli exclusion principle, since you wouldn't have that principle at all, correct?

I dunno, my gut says there's probably a clever way to get to it without invoking identical particles.

 

[Ken G]

To me, identicalness is absolutely central to the Pauli exclusion principle (for fermions), just as it is cental to Bose-Einstein condensation (for bosons). So I don't think identicalness is some kind of shortcut way to derive these things, it is the cause of them both, at least within the description we have access to using quantum mechanics. The existence of white dwarf stars means that quantum mechanics would actually need to be wrong for there to be some clever way to distinguish electrons.