Quantum Mechanical

Treatment & Exchange

Interactions
M.Phil. Physics
 EXCHANGE
INTERACTION

• The exchange interaction (with an

exchange energy and exchange term) is a
quantum mechanical effect that only occurs
between identical particles.
• The effect is due to the wave function of
indistinguishable particles being subject to
exchange symmetry,
• That is, either remaining unchanged (symmetric) or
changing sign (Antisymmetric) when two particles
are exchanged.
Both bosons and fermions can experience the
exchange interaction.
• For fermions, this interaction is sometimes called Pauli
repulsion and is related to the Pauli exclusion principle.
• For bosons, the exchange interaction takes the form of an
effective attraction that causes identical particles to be found
closer together, as in Bose–Einstein condensation.
• The exchange interaction alters the expectation value of the
distance when the wave functions of two or more
indistinguishable particles overlap.
• This interaction increases (for fermions) or decreases (for
bosons) the expectation value of the distance between
identical particles (compared to distinguishable
particles).
• Among other consequences, the exchange interaction is
responsible for ferromagnetism .
• Exchange interaction effects were discovered
independently by physicists Werner heisenberg and
Paul Dirac in 1926.
• The exchange interaction is sometimes called the exchange
force. However, it is not a true force and should not be
confused with the exchange forces
produced by the exchange of force carriers, such as the
electromagnetic force produced between two electrons by
the exchange of a photon, or the strong force between two
quarks produced by the exchange of a gluon.
• QUANTUM MECHANICAL PARTICLES ARE CLASSIFIED AS BOSONS OR FERMIONS. THE
SPIN– STATISTICS THEOREM OF QUANTUM FIELD THEORY DEMANDS THAT ALL
PARTICLES
WITH HALF-INTEGER SPIN BEHAVE AS FERMIONS AND ALL PARTICLES WITH INTEGER
SPIN BEHAVE AS BOSONS.
• MULTIPLE BOSONS MAY OCCUPY THE SAME QUANTUM STATE; HOWEVER, BY THE
PAULI EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE, NO TWO FERMIONS CAN OCCUPY THE SAME STATE.
• SINCE ELECTRONS HAVE SPIN 1/2, THEY ARE FERMIONS. THIS MEANS THAT THE
OVERALL WAVE FUNCTION OF A SYSTEM MUST BE ANTISYMMETRIC WHEN TWO
ELECTRONS ARE EXCHANGED, I.E. INTERCHANGED WITH RESPECT TO BOTH
SPATIAL AND SPIN COORDINATES. FIRST, HOWEVER, EXCHANGE WILL BE EXPLAINED
WITH THE NEGLECT OF SPIN.
 EXCHANGE OF SPATIAL
COORDINATES
• TAKING A HYDROGEN MOLECULE-LIKE SYSTEM (I.E. ONE WITH TWO
ELECTRONS), ONE MAY ATTEMPT TO MODEL THE STATE OF EACH ELECTRON
BY FIRST ASSUMING THE ELECTRONS BEHAVE INDEPENDENTLY, AND TAKING
WAVE FUNCTIONS IN POSITION SPACE.
• HAMILTONIAN BETWEEN TWO ELECTRONS IN ORBITALS ΦA AND ΦB CAN BE
WRITTEN IN TERMS OF THEIR SPIN MOMENTA S(A) AND S(B) .THIS IS NAMED
THE HEISENBERG EXCHANGE HAMILTONIAN OR THE HEISENBERG–DIRAC
HAMILTONIAN IN THE OLDER LITERATURE:

• JAB IS TERMED THE EXCHANGE CONSTANT.