Physics Asked on February 21, 2021
In quantum mechanics, particles are described as wave-like. This means, for example, that an electron or photon does not have a well-defined position before one measures it and causes the wavefunction to collapse. Instead, the particle has a probability distribution of where it is likely to be found when measuring.
Now I wondered if the spin of a particle behaves similarly. For example, could an electron have a spin of $frac 1 2$ and "at the same time", a spin of $-frac 1 2$? (By "at the same time", I mean that one cannot say for sure what its spin is – similar to position where one maybe could say that the particle either has no position or is everywhere at the same time).
If yes, how could this be in agreement with the Pauli exclusion principle? (If two electrons have undefined spin, how does for example an atomic orbital "know" that it is filled and no third electron could enter?)
Let's take this in steps:
More generally, it is important to emphasize that a superposition state is not, in any way, an "undefined spin". It is a very clearly defined state, which just happens not to have a well-defined projection along the chosen $z$ axis.
If you want to dig deeper, the "grown-up" version of the Pauli exclusion principle is the formalism for indistinguishable quantum particles, which requires (for fermions) that the wavefunction change sign if two fermions are exchanged. This has wide-ranging consequences and is explained in detail in intermediate QM textbooks .One particular consequence is the "smaller" version of the Pauli exclusion principle, that electrons cannot be in the same state $-$ as then the global wavefunction would be symmetric instead of antisymmetric.
Correct answer by Emilio Pisanty on February 21, 2021
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