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I've read that the Pauli's exclusion principle can be explained because the wave function of fermions (half-interger spin) change sign when you permute two arguments and that this makes it impossible to have two equal states, which in bosons (integer spin) doesn't happen. But why is it the spin that makes this difference? Is the Spin-Statistics theorem another approach or the same?

UKH
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Julian Ar.
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    You're right, this is a manifestation of the Spin-Statistics theorem. To explain it properly requires quantum field theory, do you have a background understanding of QFT? – J. Murray Aug 18 '17 at 04:12
  • Another detail beside the spin is the magnetic dipole moment of the electrons. Pauli realized that the electrons in the atoms shells prefer to be oriented pairwise with spin up and spin down. Or in other formulation with opposite orientation of their magnetic dipole moments; which is more intuitive but unfortunately rarely mentioned. – HolgerFiedler Aug 18 '17 at 04:16
  • I'm an autodidact on QFT but i can try to follow you if you want to explain me. Thanks. – Julian Ar. Aug 18 '17 at 04:31
  • See the book Statistical Mechanics by Roger Bowley under the chapter Identical Particles. – UKH Aug 18 '17 at 08:37
  • @HolgerFiedler That has essentially nothing to do with this issue. Sure, electrons have a spin-spin interaction, but it doesn't control their quantum statistics. Bosonic atoms can have a spin-spin interaction as well, but they obey Bose-Einstein statistics. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Aug 18 '17 at 20:26

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