The Role of the Exclusion Principle for Atoms to Stars: A Historical Account

TL;DR

This paper traces the historical development of Pauli's exclusion principle and discusses its crucial role in understanding the stability of matter from atoms to stars, highlighting both historical and modern insights.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical account of Pauli's discovery and explores recent advances in understanding matter stability in various contexts.

Findings

Exclusion principle was key to atomic stability

Recent results explain matter stability in bulk and astrophysical objects

Historical insights connect quantum mechanics with astrophysics

Abstract

In a first historical part I shall give a detailed description of how Pauli discovered --before the advent of the new quantum mechanics -- his exclusion principle. The second part is devoted to the insight and results that have been obtained in more recent times in our understanding of the stability of matter in bulk, both for ordinary matter (like stones) and self-gravitating bodies.