School of Mathematics School of Mathematics
Course 443, Statistical Physics 2002-03 (Compulsory SS Theoretical Physics, Optional JS & SS Mathematics, JS & SS Two-subject Moderatorship, JS Theoretical Physics)
Lecturer: Dr. Ivo Sachs
Requirements/prerequisites: 241
Duration: 21 weeks
Number of lectures per week: 3
Assessment: Regular assignments.
End-of-year Examination: One 3-hour examination

Description: Brief review of thermodynamics. Canonical/Grand Canonical ensembles. Applications to Perfect Gas and one dimensional Ising Model. Non Ideal Gas, the cluster expansion and virial coefficients. Quantum statistical mechanics. Fermi Dirac and Bose Einstein statistics for non-interacting particles. Applications: Fermi Dirac Gas, Bose Einstein Condensations. Chemical Reactions. Applications to Astrophysics, Superfluidity, Phase Transitions, Landau Theory. Ideas of Symmetry Breaking. Linear Response Theory. Numerical methods.


Textbooks:

  1. L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz, Statistical Physics
  2. K. Huang, Statistical Mechanics
  3. W. Griener, L. Niese and H. Stocker, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
  4. S.K. Ma, Statistical Mechanics
  5. L.E. Reichl, A Modern Course in Statistical Physics

Mar 27, 2003

File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.70.
On 27 Mar 2003, 10:32.