The collision of electrons with simple atomic systems and electron exchange

Abstract One of the outstanding differences between classical theory and quantum mechanics is the importance which the latter attaches to the identity of particles. Although perfectly well realised before the introduction of modern quantum theory, the fact that two electrons are experimentally indistinguish­able did not introduce any novel features into the dynamics of many electron systems on Bohr’s theory. However, Heisenberg showed that these identity relations are of fundamental importance in many body problems, and was able to explain the formerly very puzzling characteristic of the spectrum of neutral helium, its division into two non-combining term systems. Owing to the identity of the particles, the wave function representing such a system must have certain symmetry properties; for the particles known in Nature this symmetry characteristic is that the function be either symmetric or anti-symmetric in the co-ordinates of the particles. For particles with a spin such as the electron and proton, only antisymmetry is allowed (Pauli’s principle), while for α-particles the wave function must be symmetrical. Since Heisenberg’s explanation of the helium spectrum the theory of anti-symmetric electron wave functions has been extended to describe the general features of the spectra of all atoms, while it appears from the work of Heitler and London that the theory is of fundamental importance in the explanation of chemical combination between atoms. Again, in furnishing a new statistics it is an essential feature of the theory of metals. As the effect of the identity relations depends on the fact that exchanging the electrons does not alter the system in any way, these effects are known as exchange phenomena.