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Note on the Interpretation of the Density Matrix in the Many-Electron Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

P. A. M. Dirac
P. A. M. Dirac
Affiliation:
St John's College.
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Extract

When we treat an atom containing a number n of electrons by the method of the self-consistent field, we assume that each electron has its own particular “orbit,” specified by a wave function (q|r) in four variables q. These four variables are usually taken to be the three coordinates of the electron together with a variable describing the spin, but according to the transformation theory of quantum mechanics, they may be any four independent commuting functions of the coordinates, momenta and spin variables.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 1931 , pp. 240 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1931

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References

* Fock, , Z. f. Physik, vol. 61, p. 126 (1930).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

† (r|q) is the conjugate complex function to (q|r).

* Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. vol. xxvi, p. 376 (1930), equations (9), (10), (11).Google Scholar

† When the q's take on continuous ranges of values, this is to be understood in terms of differentials in the usual way.