PHYS 342

Equipartition of energy: equipartition theorem, Brownian motion.
The partition function: Its expression, the function of state, combining partition functions.
Statistical mechanics of ideal gases: Density of states, quantum concentration,
distinguishability, functions of states of ideal gases, Gibbs paradox, heat capacity of a diatomic gas.
Chemical potential: definition, grand partition function, relation to Gibbs function, particle
number conservation.
Photons: radiation pressure, statistical mechanics of a gas of photons, Black body
distribution.
Phonons: the Einstein model, the Debye model.
Overview of: real gases, phase transitions,
Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions and quantum gases