What is the meaning of a fully occupied state in the Fermi-Dirac distribution?

[Karim Habashy]

Hi all,

The probability that a state is occupied means :

1) Fully Occupied by 2 electrons Spin up and Spin down
or
2) Occupied by 1 electron only .

Thanks

 

[DrClaude]

It depends how state is defined

Sometimes, state is taken to be "energy level," meaning that it has a degeneracy of 2, as the first case you mentioned. Sometimes, state refers to the actual quantum state, in which case the Pauli exclusion principle makes it a one-electron state.

You basically have to pay attention to what the author is saying (or worse, is implying).

 

[blue_leaf77]

Probably the term orbital or (spatial) energy eigenfunction better replaces the "state" in the first point.