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The Budapest Office - Castro Bisztro, Madach ter

The Budapest Office - Castro Bisztro, Madach ter
Ponder, Scribble, Ponder (Photo Erdotahi Aron)

Wednesday 18 April 2007

Two Fermions = 1 Boson?

Just asking.

Pauli's Exclusion Principle says two fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state. But two bosons can - according to Bose-Einstein statistics, and we have all the weird Bose-Einstein condensates produced in recent years to attest to the theory.

Question: can anyone explain why? (Please note, I'm not asking "can anyone" in any implied "wow! it's really spooky! no one really knows...! woooooooooo!" kind of way).

What I mean is, if a number of bosons can have the same quantum state and fermions can't, then within the bosons-made-of-fermions, the fermions must all have different quantum states, mustn't they? How does that come about or manifest itself?

Just asking.

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