I recently attended a talk where computations on some quite complicated molecules gave excellent agreement with observation. What concerned me was that the biggest single term was usually the energy required to provide compliance with the Exclusion Principle. I emailed the speaker for an explanation of how this could arise; so far I have not received a response so if anyone reading this wishes to explain, I would be very interested.
In my interpretation of quantum mechanics, compliance with the Exclusion Principle should involve zero energy change. I assume the wave is real, and a stationary state arises when the wave function is single-valued, i.e. as the wave completes any number of periods, it has the same value, which means that value and what it represents does not move. Accordingly, following any number of periods, the particle generating such a wave shows zero expectation change of position at that value of the wave function, hence it has shown zero net acceleration between quanta of action. This is the only condition consistent with Maxwell’s electrodynamics that permits the electron not to radiate energy.
If so, the Exclusion Principle arises as follows. The wave can only be single-valued when the action is quantized. For a single electron, such quantization requires a 2-cycle period; for the 1s orbital there are no nodes and two cycles are required for a crest and a trough. For higher wave functions the same applies, although the argument is more complicated. Now, a fundamental property of waves is that two equivalent waves in opposing directions form a stationary wave with half the wavelength. Adding a third electron, and its corresponding wave, cannot under any circumstances permit a stationary wave, in which case Maxwell’s electrodynamics ensures that state is totally unstable, and must either radiate or absorb electromagnetic energy. The Exclusion Principle follows, with, at this stage, no reference to magnetism. One important point, of course, is the waves must have the correct phase relationship, and it is from this, and the corresponding wave component due to magnetic interactions, that gives the required quantum number relationship.
What this claims is that the Exclusion Principle follows if the wave is real, if action is quantized, and if Maxwell’s equations apply. Whatever else, I shall back Maxwell’s equations almost beyond any other piece of physics. If so, the Exclusion Principle is NOT a piece of independent physics. The requirement to comply with the Exclusion Principle in forming a bond is that there must be a correct phase relationship between the waves of two unpaired electrons. But it is a property of waves that a phase shift does not involve a change of energy, in which case the energy term arising from the need to comply with the Exclusion Principle must be zero.
Either the above is wrong or the computations are wrong. Agreement with observation does not imply truth; the most successful theory ever in terms of getting correct answers over the longest period of time was the theory of Claudius Ptolemy, and that was just plain wrong. So you see why I am unimpressed by these computations.
