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Many-Particle Systems and Quantum Statistics
In this chapter, we discuss two important concepts related to many-particle systems. They are the principles of indistinguishability and the density matrix. The principle of indistinguishability is special to quantum mechanics. It is because of this principle that we have to divide all the elementary particles into two categories: bosons and fermions. There are drastic differences in physical properties between macroscopic objects that are made of bosons and fermions. We first discuss the concept of identical particles, principle of indistinguishability and their consequences. Then we introduce the concept of density matrix.
Density matrix is a general formalism suitable to study an ensemble of ...
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