Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/a2/d/solution

Keeping the same two spin states but incorrectly imposing boson exchange symmetry would require a symmetric total wavefunction. The spin-antisymmetric singlet state would then accompany , while the spin-symmetric triplet state would accompany . Thus
and . The ordering reverses: the triplet would be destabilized by relative to the singlet. A genuinely spinless boson would have no singlet/triplet spin distinction; this comparison changes exchange symmetry while retaining the question's spin degrees of freedom.

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