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.
