Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/7/a/solution
Past exam of the quantum physics course of the University of Oxford 2016 7 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The spin Hilbert space is a tensor product of two two-dimensional spaces and therefore has dimension four. Angular momentum addition decomposes it asThese are three orthogonal triplet states and one singlet state. For identical electrons the complete wavefunction must also satisfy fermionic exchange symmetry: a symmetric triplet spin factor accompanies an antisymmetric spatial factor, whereas the antisymmetric singlet spin factor accompanies a symmetric spatial factor. If both electrons occupy the same spatial orbital, only the singlet spin factor is allowed. The four-dimensional spin space does not assert four allowed spin states for that particular spatial occupation.
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