Talk:Exchange interaction

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[edit] What is being exchanged?

Aren't the "exchange interaction" and "exchange force" in the first paragraph two different things? The first results from the antisymmetry of identical fermions without reference to interactions with other particles. The second results from the exchange of bosons, whether the fermions are identical or not. Maybe the "exchange force" should be discussed elsewhere. —JerryFriedman 19:18, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

I am not an expert on this subject, but I think that the example of a gluon (boson) passing between two quarks is inappropriate for this article. The "exchange" being discussed here is two fermions of the same type trading places with each other. When two atoms are close enough that an electron orbital of one overlaps an electron orbital of the other, the two electrons (of the same spin) can trade places in the overlap and this creates a repulsive force also known as the Pauli force. JRSpriggs 05:56, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
Presently, exchange force is a redirect into exchange interaction, hence there my be a certain amount of overlap of differing material in the article. I will move some of the material into exchange force as its own article, although technically they may be the same thing in some discussions. --Sadi Carnot 16:19, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Exchange interactions are not just for electrons/fermions

The article gives one the impression that the exchange interaction only is a factor for electrons (or perhaps for fermions) -- it happens for both bosons and fermions, and I'd remove all reference to electrons since it happens for all fermions, not just electrons.

There is an excellent description of this in Griffifths, "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics", second edition, pages 207-210. Basically, identical fermions with overlapping wave functions are observed "further apart" than distinguishable particles, and identical bosons with overlapping wave functions are observed "closer together", where we think of distance here as the expectation value of the square of the difference of the positions of the particles.

Anyway, I think the subject is confusing enough already without making it look like a fermion only phenomenon etc. --Pmetzger (talk) 19:42, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I'll agree with P. Metzger too, an would like the plurality to return into the title as stated above, e.g.: Exchange "interactions" as well. It will possibly involve some redirectional consequences, but wouldn't so be better spoken of many interactions instead of much interaction? D.A. Borgdorff: 86.83.155.44 (talk) 00:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
I'm not sure why it should be plural -- it is a unitary phenomenon, not several phenomena. --Pmetzger (talk) 02:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)