Course Learning Outcomes

1. calculate macroscopic thermodynamic properties from a microscopic description of a system
2. calculate partition functions and understand their relevance
3. derive densities of states
4. calculate important select applications of statistical physics in both classical and quantum mechanical systems

Course Requirements

• Statistical Physics 3rd Edition Part 1, Course of Theoretical Physics Volume 5 by Landau and Lifshitz
• Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics by Reif.
• Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics by Le Bellac, Mortessagne and Batrouni.

Tentative Course Schedule

Chapter 1: Fundamental Principles of Statistical Physics

1. Review of topics in Classical Mechanics
   1. Hamilton's equations, phase space
   2. Phase flow
   3. Liouville's theorem
   4. Poincare's recurrence theorem
   5. Necessity of a statistical description of many-particle systems
2. Statistical methods
   1. Probability
   2. Binomial distribution
   3. Poisson distributions
   4. Averages & fluctuations
   5. Continuous distributions
   6. Gaussian distribution and the central limit thereom
3. Review of Thermodynamics
   1. Statistical description of large systems
   2. The equilibrium state
4. Statistical ensembles
5. Quantum statistical mechanics

Chapter 2: Selected Applications

1. Classical Systems
2. The ideal Fermi gas
3. The ideal Bose gas
4. Maxwell's velocity distribution

Chapter 3: Phase Transitions

1. Phenomenology and classification of phase transitions
2. An exactly solvable model: The 1D Ising model
3. Renormalization group

Chapter 4: Kinetic Theory

Chapter 5: Numerical Simulations

Chapter 6: Topics in Non-Equilibrium Stat Mech (time permitting)

Problem Assignments and Exam Dates

Grading

Counseling and Disability Services

Academic Honesty