This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy, and heat capacity. Emphasis is placed on the calculation of the canonical and grand canonical partition functions for various model physical systems. Particular attention is focused on three ideal gas systems: a gas consisting of massive Maxwell-Boltzmann particles, a gas consisting of massless bosons (i.e., photons), and a gas consisting of fermions.
This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy, and heat capacity. Emphasis is placed on the calculation of the canonical and grand canonical partition functions for various model physical systems. Particular attention is focused on three ideal gas systems: a gas consisting of massive Maxwell-Boltzmann particles, a gas consisting of massless bosons (i.e., photons), and a gas consisting of fermions.
This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy, and heat capacity. Emphasis is placed on the calculation of the canonical and grand canonical partition functions for various model physical systems. Particular attention is focused on three ideal gas systems: a gas consisting of massive Maxwell-Boltzmann particles, a gas consisting of massless bosons (i.e., photons), and a gas consisting of fermions.
This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy, and heat capacity. Emphasis is placed on the calculation of the canonical and grand canonical partition functions for various model physical systems. Particular attention is focused on three ideal gas systems: a gas consisting of massive Maxwell-Boltzmann particles, a gas consisting of massless bosons (i.e., photons), and a gas consisting of fermions.
This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy, and heat capacity. Emphasis is placed on the calculation of the canonical and grand canonical partition functions for various model physical systems. Particular attention is focused on three ideal gas systems: a gas consisting of massive Maxwell-Boltzmann particles, a gas consisting of massless bosons (i.e., photons), and a gas consisting of fermions.
This course applies basic concepts of probability and statistics to systems consisting of a large number of microscopic particles to determine measurable macroscopic quantities such as temperature, pressure, energy and heat capacity from a knowledge of the microscopic energy levels of the constituent particles. After a brief review of elementary probability concepts, the course develops, in turn, Maxwell-Boltzmann, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, and applies these formalisms to the study of, respectively, an ideal gas of weakly interacting classical particles, of massless bosons (photons), and of massive fermions (electrons in a metal). Also discussed are topics from classical thermodynamics, including heat engines and phase equilibria.
