Free electrons in conductors
Channel: Brant Carlson
Date: 15/05/2013

Given sufficient hand-waving, conduction electrons in conductors are free to move about within but cannot be found outside the material and do not significantly interact with each other.  Within that framework, we can find the lowest energy state of the system of electrons as a system of conduction electrons as many fermions occupying quantum states starting with the lowest energy and moving up as the states fill in accordance with the Pauli exclusion principle.  This gives expressions for the energy scale associated with the electrons (the Fermi energy) and the pressure induced by the Pauli exclusion principle (degeneracy pressure).  (This lecture is part of a series for a course based on Griffiths' Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.  The Full playlist is at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL65jGfVh1ilueHVVsuCxNXoxrLI3OZAPI.)