Dr Matthew Wingate - Statistical physics (Lent 2007)

Materials online

Notes from previous years, when lectured by Prof R R Horgan and Prof A J Macfarlane.
Notes on Statistical Physics and Cosmology can be found on this list of DAMTP notes on the web (about half-way down)
Example sheet 1 (pdf) (or ps), distributed 1 Feb 2007, updated 14 Feb 2007 to clarify wording in #8 and #10
Example sheet 2 (pdf) (or ps), distributed 15 Feb 2007, updated 23 Feb 2007 to include Boltzmann's constant in #4, updated 27 Feb 2007 to correct typo in #6 and clarify #8 and #10
Example sheet 3 (pdf) (or ps), distributed 1 Mar 2007, updated question #4 on 12 Mar 2007
Central list of undergraduate example sheets

Bibliography

F Reif, Statistical and Thermal Physics. Out of print? Or reprinted by Dover? Thorough text, especially for thermodynamics and classical statistical mechanics.
F Mandl, Statistical Physics (Wiley & Sons, 2nd ed., 1988). Conventional first course on statistical physics. Useful on for this course, although it leaves any statistical physics discussion until well after thermodynamics is fully developed.
K Huang, Introduction to Statistical Physics, (CRC Press, 2001). Also largely conventional and useful, again putting thermodynamics before, and separate, from statistical mechanics.
L D Landau and E M Lifshitz, Statistical Physics, Part I (Pergamon Press, 3rd ed., 1980). Rigorous, advanced text. A classic.
R K Pathria, Statistical Mechanics (Pergemon Press, 1st ed, 1972). About the same level as Landau and Lifshitz. Especially good for quantum statistical mechanics.
R Feynman, Statistical Mechanics, (Addison-Wesley, 1972). Treatment employing path integrals -- unconventional for a first course. Chapter on density matrices could be useful background though.
E Fermi, Thermodynamics, (Dover, 1956). Reprinted by Dover. Excellent notes on thermodynamics. (No statistical mechanics.)

Syllabus

#	Date	Topic	Further reading
1	18 Jan 2007	Introductory remarks. Statistical distribution function: classical phase space, quantum microstates.	L & L, §1-6 Feynman, ch. 2
2	23 Jan 2007	Canonical ensemble. Counting microstates.	Reif, ch. 2 Pathria, §1.2, §3.1-3.6
3	25 Jan 2007	Temperature. Zeroth law of thermodynamics.
4	30 Jan 2007	First law of thermodynamics.	Mandl, ch. 1
5	1 Feb 2007	Intensive/extensive quantities. Density of states. Partition function for ideal gas. Gibbs' paradox. Equipartition.	Mandl, ch. 7 L & L, ch. IV
6	6 Feb 2007	Ideal gas equation of state. 2nd law of thermodynamics. Entropy of mixing.	L & L, ch. IV
7	8 Feb 2007	Heat capacities. Carnot cycle.	Mandl, ch. 5
8	13 Feb 2007	Van der Waals gas. Grand canonical ensemble.	Reif, §10.3-10.5 Pathria, ch. 4 L & L, ch. V
9	15 Feb 2007	Ideal Fermi and Bose gases in the grand canonical ensemble. Mean occupation number, Fermi-Dirac distribution.	Mandl, ch. 9 L & L, §53,54
10	20 Feb 2007	Mean occupation number, Bose-Einstein distribution. The classical limit.	Mandl, ch. 9
11	22 Feb 2007	Black-body radiation.	Mandl, ch. 10 Pathria, §7.2 L & L, §61
12	27 Feb 2007	Heat capacity of solids Bose-Einstein condensation	Mandl, ch. 6, §11.6 L & L, ch. VI Pathria, §7.3, §7.1
13	1 Mar 2007	(Bose-Einstein condensation, cont'd) Degenerate Fermi gas	Mandl, §11.5 Pathria, §8.1 L & L, §57-58
14	6 Mar 2007	Degenerate Fermi gas, heat capacity at low temperature	Pathria, §8.1, App. E L & L §58
15	8 Mar 2007	Classical statistical mechanics Simple model of molecular gas	Reif, ch. 7 L & L, §47
16	13 Mar 2007	Vibrations in classical diatomic molecular gas Classical model of paramagnetism	Pathria, §3.8 L & L, §49, §52