Abstract
The exchange energy for the Wannier exciton is calculated by solving a previously derived two-body Hamiltonian H(2). The solution of the eigenvalue problem of H(2) in the effectivemass approximation is performed with a numerical diagonalization method. The values obtained for the exchange energy in several II-VI compounds are between 10 and 20% of the binding energy of the pure hydrogenlike exciton. The comparison with experimental results shows a satisfactory agreement.