I am somewhat confused by how to represent occupation numbers for molecules in the ground state.

For my understanding, a molecule with 6 electrons will have 6 orbitals in the ground state. Using the standard notation, it seems to me that the only possible ket to describe it would therefore be \ket{111111}, since every electron has to occupy a single orbital only?

However due to literature descriptions, it looks like the number of orbitals would have to be greater than the number of electrons. Can anyone point out my mistake?

More Christoph Moser's questions See All
Similar questions and discussions