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
Theoretical and experimental justification for the Schrödinger equation the clock in the observer frame. A wave-like picture of particles is thus consistent with special relativity. In fact, we now know that these relations can be succinctly written using special relativistic 4-vector notation: The relevant four-vectors are: The relations between the four-vectors are as follows: The phase of the wave is the relativistic invariant: The de Broglie hypothesis helped resolve outstanding issues in atomic physics. Classical physics was unable to explain the observed behaviour of electrons in atoms. Specifically, accelerating electrons emit electromagnetic radiation according to the Larmor formula. Electrons orbiting a nucleus should lose energy to radiation and