Locality of the Effect of the Pauli Principle in Atoms

Abstract

It is shown that the conventional application of the Pauli principle to the qualitative estimation of the relative distributions of electrons with parallel and antiparallel spins is wrong. The Pauli principle induces a local reduction of the probability of finding electrons with parallel spins close together. However, for neutral atoms at least, such electrons have a considerably higher probability of being found at moderate separations and an accompanying reduced probability of being found at higher separations, relative to electrons with antiparallel spins.