Quarticles and the Identity of Indiscernibles

Huggett, Nick (2002) Quarticles and the Identity of Indiscernibles.

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Abstract

A number of commentators (especially French and Redhead, 1988, and Butterfield, 1993) have investigated the status of the principle of the identity of indiscernibles (PII) for bosons and fermions. In this paper I extend that investigation to the full range of quantum particles of any allowed kind of statistics -- `quarticles', that is. I show that for any kind (except bosons and fermions) there are states in which PII is violated by every pair of particles, some pairs and not others, and by no pairs.

Keywords:permutations, statistics, quarticles, quantum mechanics, identity
Subjects:Specific Sciences: Physics: Fields and Particles
Specific Sciences: Physics: Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences: Physics: Quantum Mechanics
Specific Sciences: Physics: Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Conferences and Volumes:[2001] Symmetries in Physics, New Reflections: Oxford Workshop (Oxford, January 2001)
ID Code:711
Deposited By:Huggett, Nick
Deposited On:01 August 2002

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