On the Origin of the Quantum Rules for Identical Particles

Abstract. We present a proof of the Symmetrization Postulate for the special case of non-interacting, identical particles. The proof is given in the context of the Feynman formalism of Quantum Mechanics, and builds upon the work of Goyal, Knuth and Skilling [1], which shows how to derive Feynman’s rules from operational assumptions concerning experiments. Our proof is inspired by an attempt to derive this result due to Tikochinsky [2], but substantially improves upon his argument, by clarifying the nature of the subject matter, by improving notation, and by avoiding strong, abstract assumptions such as analyticity