Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:41:58.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Affiliation:
St John's College.

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
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1931

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.