Fermi point

[CPL.Luke]

namely what is it,

 

My friend and I are trying to write a wikipedia article on the subject and need some help finding a clear definition of what a fermi point is.

[m4rc]

The fermi point is an amount of energy. Unless excited fermions, will fill every state available that have energy less than or equal to the fermi point. Usually the Fermi level is used to discuss electrons in semiconductors and metals. In semiconductors at absolute zero, electrons will fill up every available state that have energy of less than or equal to the fermi point. At higher temperatures, some electrons will be excited, so there will be some electrons with energies above the fermi level.

[CPL.Luke]

by any chance is that the QFT definition? my partner found an alternate one for nanotubes and were trying to find a good definition for QFT. All of the texts on the subject are rather inaccessible to our simple minds.

[m4rc]

The definition that I have given although develloped for solid state physics should still apply for Quantum field theory.

 

I've seen other definitions for the Fermi level. Another is the energy where the probability that a given available electron energy state will be occupied (given by the Fermi function) is exactly 0.5. It is not obvious (even if you know the Fermi function) that this and my previous definition are equivalent.

I suspect that you may have found another definition which may be correct as well. I chose my previous definition because, it would be easier to understand and does not resort to any complicated mathematics. You may want to look up:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/fermi.html for more information.