indistinguishability

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the quality or state of being impossible to distinguish from something else

   The near indistinguishability of the two signatures made the forgery difficult to detect.

2. 2
   noun

   in quantum physics, the principle that exchanging identical particles produces no physically observable new state

   Electron indistinguishability requires the wave function to respect exchange symmetry.

From indistinguishable + -ity: in- ("not") + distinguish + -able + -ity. Distinguish comes through Old French distinguer from Latin distinguere ("separate, mark off"). Physics later adopted the noun for the principle that exchanging identical particles creates no observable difference.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images