Particle exchange statistics beyond fermions and bosons

Understand

It is commonly believed that there are only two types of particle exchange statistics in quantum mechanics, fermions and bosons, with the exception of anyons in two dimension.

• In principle, a second exception known as parastatistics, which extends outside of two dimensions, has been considered but was believed to be physically equivalent to fermions and bosons.
• In this paper we show that nontrivial parastatistics inequivalent to either fermions or bosons can exist in physical systems.
• These new types of identical particles obey generalized exclusion principles, leading to exotic free-particle thermodynamics distinct from any system of free fermions and bosons.