Materials Online

• My lecture notes, appearing in sections, and example sheets (Raven login necessary)
• 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)
• Central list of undergraduate example sheets

Bibliography

1. F Reif, Statistical and Thermal Physics (McGraw-Hill, 1965). Thorough text, roughly following the same logic as this course.
2. D McQuarrie, Statistical Mechanics (Harper & Row, 1976). Also a very good reference for this course.
3. 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.
4. K Huang, Introduction to Statistical Physics, (CRC Press, 2001). Also largely conventional and useful, again putting thermodynamics before, and separate, from statistical mechanics.
5. L D Landau and E M Lifshitz, Statistical Physics, Part I (Pergamon Press, 3rd ed., 1980). Rigorous, advanced text. A classic.
6. R K Pathria, Statistical Mechanics (Pergemon Press, 1st ed, 1972). About the same level as Landau and Lifshitz. Especially good for quantum statistical mechanics.
7. 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.
8. E Fermi, Thermodynamics, (Dover, 1956). Reprinted by Dover. Excellent notes on thermodynamics. (No statistical mechanics.)
9. D Lindley, Boltzmann's Atom, (Free Press, 2001). The story of Ludwig Boltzmann and the birth of statistical mechanics.