Summary
A quantum-mechanical system of identical particles is considered. It is shown that only totally symmetric or totally antisymmetric wave functions are compatible with the cluster property. As a consequence it follows that no particles with a statistical behaviour different from that of ordinary bosons or fermions can exist. Para-fields can under certain conditions be used for the description of particles with an internal degree of freedom. Their use is then, however, optional. From a purely field-theoretical point of view there are no objections against the use of para-fields.
Riassunto
Si studia un sistema quanto-meccanico di particelle identiche. Si dimostra che solo funzioni d’onda totalmente simmetriche o totalmente antisimmetriche sono compatibili con le proprietà d’ammasso. Ne segue di conseguenza che non possono esistere particelle con un comportamento statistico diverso da quello degli ordinari bosoni o fermioni. In certe condizioni si possono usare paracampi per la descrizione di particelle con un grado di libertà interno. Il loro uso, tuttavia, è facoltativo. Dal puro punto di vista della teoria dei campi non ci sono obiezioni all’uso dei paracampi.
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References
For a critical survey of the foundations of both the symmetrization postulate and the para-commutation rules see:A. Messiah andO. W. Greenberg:Phys. Rev.,136, B 248 (1964);O. W. Greenberg andA. Messiah:Phys. Rev.,138, B 1155 (1965). These papers contain references to the earlier work on the subject. They will be quoted as GM I and GM II respectively.
In this category falls also a recent paper byH. J. Borchers:Comm. Math. Phys.,1, 281 (1965), which treats the problem in the framework of theC *-algebra approach to quantum mechanics. Borchers’ proof has the additional disadvantage of being applicable to charged particles only.
For the representation theory of the symmetric groups see:H. Boerner:Representations of Groups, Chap. IV (Amsterdam, 1963), or any of the standard textbooks on the physical applications of group theory.
W. Pauli:Die allgemeinen Prinzipien der Wellenmechanik, Encyclopedia of Physics, vol.5, Part 1 (Berlin, 1958), p. 110.
A. Galindo andF. J. Yndurian:Nuovo Cimento,30, 1040 (1063).
S. S. Schweber:Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Field Theory (Evanston, Ill., 1961), Chap. 6.
H. Lehmann, K. Symanzik andW. Zimmermann:Nuovo Cimento,6, 319 (1957).
This model is due toV. Glaser (unpublished). I thank Prof.M. Fierz for bringing it to my attention.
For a survey of general field theory see:R. F. Streater andA. S. Wightman:PCT, Spin and Statistics, and All That (New York, 1964);R. Jost:The General Theory of Quantized Fields (Providence, R. I., 1965).
Note that the known proof of asymptotic conditions:D. Ruelle:Helv. Phys. Acta,35, 147 (1962);K. Hepp:Comm. Math. Phys.,1, 95 (1965) assume local commutativity and do therefore not apply here.
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Steinmann, O. Symmetrization postulate and cluster property. Nuovo Cimento A (1965-1970) 44, 755–767 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02911201
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02911201