Particle class of atoms

[Carlis]

the Deuterium nucleus is a boson since it is made upp of two fermions and thus has integer spinn. By the same logic, protium nucleus is a fermion (single proton)
Since both of these have one electron (fermion), does that mean the Deuterium atoms are in fact fermions and protium atoms are bosons? And is this logig applicable to all atoms so that they are all bosons for even number of fermions, and fermions for odd...
Is it that simple?

 

[f95toli]

Almost, the electrons have nothing to do with it and you don't count their spin, only the total spin of the nucleus is important. Bosons have integer spins and Fermions fractional spins.
I.e. protons and neutrons both have spin 1/2 so if you combine two protons and one neutron (He-3) you get 3/2, i.e. a fermion. 2 protons and 2 neutrons (He-4) is 4/2=2 giving an integer spin.
This is the reason why He-4 follows Bose-Einstein statistics when it becomes a superfluid and liquid He-3 is a Fermi liquid.

 

[Carlis]

Oh ok thanks a lot

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: f95toli
Almost, the electrons have nothing to do with it and you don't count their spin, only the total spin of the nucleus is important. Bosons have integer spins and Fermions fractional spins.
I.e. protons and neutrons both have spin 1/2 so if you combine two protons and one neutron (He-3) you get 3/2, i.e. a fermion. 2 protons and 2 neutrons (He-4) is 2/2=1 giving an integer spin.
This is the reason why He-4 follows Bose-Einstein statistics when it becomes a superfluid and liquid He-3 is a Fermi liquid.

i wish i would have asked you this question last semester, lol