Statistical Mechanics I

AY2016/2017 Semester 2

This course introduces the postulates and key ideas in statistical mechanics, with applications to classical and quantal gases. * Basic postulates, macrostates and microstates, distinguishable and indistinguishable particles, distribution functions * Temperature, entropy and the probability of system configuration occurring, Boltzmann relation, canonical ensemble and partition function * Gibb's entropy; Third law of thermodynamics; information theory; irreversible processes and arrow of time * Density of states; heat capacity in black body radiation * Ideal classical gas, Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, rotational and vibrational heat * Free electron gas, Fermi energy and distribution function, Pauli paramagnetism * Electronic contribution to heat capacity * Phonons as normal modes, contribution to heat capacity, Debye approximation; phonon gas, thermal conductivity of insulators * Mean description of phase transitions - Weiss model of ferromagnetism, order-disorder transition