The Pauli principle revisited

TL;DR

This paper investigates the relationship between the Pauli exclusion principle and the skew symmetry of multi-electron wave functions, analyzing how the replacement affects the electron density matrix beyond the original principle.

Contribution

It provides a solution to a longstanding problem regarding the impact of replacing the Pauli principle with wave function skew symmetry on the electron density matrix.

Findings

The replacement influences the eigenvalues of the electron density matrix.

The study clarifies the constraints on electron density imposed by wave function symmetry.

It extends understanding of quantum constraints beyond the classical Pauli principle.

Abstract

By the Pauli exclusion principle no quantum state can be occupied by more than one electron. One can put it as a constraint on the electron density matrix that bounds its eigenvalues by 1. Shortly after its discovery the Pauli principle has been replaced by skew symmetry of a multi-electron wave function. In this paper we solve a longstanding problem about the impact of this replacement on the electron density matrix, that goes far beyond the original Pauli principle.