PHYS-342

Thermal and Statistical Physics (PHYS 342)

Course Description: 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. 

References:
Concepts in Thermal Physics by S. J Blundell and K M Blundell, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2009