Pauli exclusion principle
Principio de exclusión de Pauli
- Date
- 1925 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Hamburg, Germany
- Credited to
- Wolfgang Pauli
- People
- 👤 Wolfgang Ernst Pauli1900–1958
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Two electrons cannot occupy the same quantum state, which requires a fourth quantum number with two values. It explains the shell structure of the periodic table and why matter is stable and occupies volume.
The fourth quantum number was interpreted as spin months later by Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit.
What it led to
- Explanation of the periodic table and chemistry
- Fermi-Dirac statistics (1926)
- Band theory and semiconductors
- White dwarf and neutron stars (degeneracy pressure)
Built on
- Bohr-Sommerfeld model
- Anomalous Zeeman effect
- Stoner's rules
Made possible
- Electron spin1925
- The transistor effect1947
- Transistor (via band theory)
- Stellar structure models