Fermi-Dirac
(ˌfɜːmɪdɪˈræk)
The names of Enrico Fermi (see prec.) and P. A. M. Dirac (b. 1902), English physicist, used to designate certain results and concepts in physics arising out of their work, as Fermi-Dirac distribution (function), a distribution function of the number of particles in a system of fermions that have a given energy; Fermi-Dirac statistics, a type of quantum statistics used to describe systems of identical particles that have wave-functions that are antisymmetric with respect to an interchange of co-ordinates of any two particles.
| [1927 Proc. R. Soc. A. CXIII. 433 It has..seemed worth while to reopen the discussion by examining..a quite general form of statistical mechanics of which the classical form and Einstein's and Fermi-Dirac's are special cases.] 1928 Proc. Physical Soc. XL. 329 Degeneracy in the Fermi-Dirac statistics occurs when λ is large and negative. 1931 [see Einstein-Bose]. 1933 Harnwell & Livinggood Exper. Atomic Physics vi. 192 The distribution function..which is known as the Fermi-Dirac distribution. 1957 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 218/2 The electrons in the metal obey the so-called ‘Fermi-Dirac statistics’, which means that they have only a very small specific heat. 1968 C. G. Kuper Introd. Theory Superconductivity ii. 33 Then the distribution function for quasiparticles will be the normal Fermi-Dirac distribution f(E) = {ob}1 + exp(βE){cb}- 1, where β = 1/kT. |