Bose–Einstein vs Fermi–Dirac

Bose–Einstein statistics describes indistinguishable particles of integer spin (bosons): photons, gluons, gravitons, helium-4 atoms. Mean occupation ni = 1/(ei−μ)/kBT − 1). Bosons can occupy the same quantum state, giving Bose–Einstein condensates below the critical temperature.

Fermi–Dirac statistics describes indistinguishable half-integer-spin particles (fermions): electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, helium-3 atoms. Mean occupation ni = 1/(ei−μ)/kBT + 1). Pauli exclusion forbids any two fermions sharing a quantum state, which underlies atomic structure, white-dwarf and neutron-star degeneracy pressure, and the periodic table.

Both reduce to the classical Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution at high temperature/low density. The sign in the denominator is the only formal difference.

Recent research on this topic from arXiv

Preprints and papers indexed on arXiv.org. Links open the public abstract pages.

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