Answer to Question #127059 in Quantum Mechanics for krishna

Question

If Nq electrons are contained in the volume at absolute zero temperature, describe how you would count the number of states/orbitals in the system.

Answer 1

From principle of quantum mechanics developed by Pauli (Pauli principle), there have to be only two electrons in each state and considering the fact that the spin of the electron takes two values. Thus, the number of occupied states will be $\frac{N}{2}$ if $N$ is even, otherwise $\frac{N-1}{2}+1$ .