Particles with half-integer spin must obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, while particles with integer spin must obey Bose-Einstein statistics. Derived within relativistic quantum field theory, it explains why matter particles such as electrons behave so differently from force-carrying particles such as photons.
Facts
StatementThe spin-statistics theorem shows that the observed relationship between a particle's intrinsic spin and its quantum statistics, that is, whether it behaves as a boson or a fermion, follows necessarily from the mathematics of quantum mechanics. 1 Proof YearMarkus Fierz gave the first proof in 1939; Wolfgang Pauli gave a more systematic rederivation the following year, 1940. Classification
Statement FormCharacterization Theorem 1 Connections
Sources
1. Spin-Statistics Theorem (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
The spin-statistics theorem proves that the observed relationship between the intrinsic spin of a particle (angular momentum not due to the orbital motion) and the quantum particle statistics of collections of such particles is a consequence of the mathematics of quantum mechanics.
Proofs
The first proof was formulated in 1939 by Markus Fierz, a student of Wolfgang Pauli, and was rederived in a more systematic way by Pauli the following year.
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