A rule, complementary to the
aufbau principle, of building up the
electronic configuration of atoms and molecules: a maximum of two electrons can occupy an orbital and then only providing that the spins of the electrons are paired, i.e. opposed. The principle demands that the wavefunction for a many-electron system must be
asymmetric with respect to the permutation of the space-spin coordinates for every pair of electrons.
Source:
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997). XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
doi:10.1351/goldbook.