Topic summary
Quantum statistics
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Particle statistics.
Quantum statistics
The fundamental feature of quantum mechanics that distinguishes it from classical mechanics is that particles of a particular type are indistinguishable from one another. This means that in an ensemble of similar particles, interchanging any two particles does not lead to a new configuration of the system. In the language of quantum mechanics this means that the wave function of the system is invariant up to a phase with respect to the interchange of the constituent particles. In the case of a system consisting of particles of different kinds (for example, electrons and protons), the wave function of the system is invariant up to a phase separately for both assemblies of particles.