English Explanatory Dictionary

Slater determinant

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An expression that describes the wavefunction of a multifermionic system. It satisfies antisymmetry requirements, and consequently the Pauli exclusion principle, by changing sign upon exchange of two electrons (or other fermions).

Word forms

Slater determinant Slater determinants

Etymology

Named after John C. Slater, who introduced the determinant in 1929 as a means of ensuring the antisymmetry of a many-electron wavefunction, although the wavefunction in the determinant form first appeared independently in Heisenberg's and Dirac's articles three years earlier.

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