Identical particles Identical particles Identical particles, also called indistinguishable or indiscernible particles, are particles that cannot be distinguished from one another, even in principle. Species of identical particles include, but are not limited to elementary particles such as electrons, composite subatomic particles such as atomic nuclei, as well as atoms and molecules. Quasiparticles also behave in this way. Although all known indistinguishable particles are "tiny", there is no exhaustive list of all possible sorts of particles nor a clear-cut limit of applicability, as explored in quantum statistics. There are two main categories of identical particles: bosons, which can share quantum states, and
Comparison of chemistry and physics studies the properties of matter at a larger scale (for example, astrochemistry) and the reactions of matter at a larger scale (for example, technical chemistry), but typically, explanations and predictions are related back to the underlying atomic structure, giving more emphasis on the methods for the identification of molecules and their mechanisms of transformation than any other science. Although both physics and chemistry are concerned with matter and its interaction with energy, the two disciplines differ in approach. In physics, it is typical to abstract from the specific type of matter, and to focus on the common properties of many