PHYSICS 214A: STATISTICAL PHYSICS

Winter 2009

Instructor: Prof. Clare Yu
Office: 210E RH
Phone: 949-824-6216
E-mail: cyu@uci.edu
Office Hours: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Monday

Grader: Gregory Zicarelli
E-mail: gzicarel@uci.edu
Phone: 949-824-6373
Office: 2115 FRH
Lab: B23 RH
Office Hours: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Monday

Lecture:9:30-10:50 am Tu-Th, 114 MSTB

Final Exam: 8:00 - 10:00 am Thursday, March 19, 114 MSTB

Required Text: Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, by F. Rief, published by McGraw-Hill.

URL for this course: http://eiffel.ps.uci.edu/cyu/p214A/ class.html
Lecture notes, syllabus, assignments, etc. will be posted at this URL. If you download the lecture notes, download the postscript or pdf files; the html files do not have the figures and some of the equations.

Assignments : There will be homework assignments, due weekly. The homework assignments will be due at the beginning of class. Late homework that is turned in within 24 hours of the deadline will be given half credit. No homework will be accepted after that.

Grading : 25% homework, 35% midterm, 40% final exam.

Recommended Texts:

Course Outline:

  1. Introduction
  2. Probability (chapter 1)
    1. Binomial distribution
    2. Moments
    3. Gaussian distribution
  3. Basic concepts
    4. (chapter 2)
    1. States of a system
    2. Ensemble
    3. Basic postulates
  4. Statistical thermodynamics (chapters 2 and 3)
    1. Thermal and mechanical interactions between macroscopic systems
    2. Quasi-static processes
    3. Definitions: work, heat, temperature, entropy
    4. Laws of thermodynamics
    5. Reversible and irreversible processes
    6. Equilibrium conditions
  5. Macroscopic parameters (Chapter 4)
    1. Work and internal energy
    2. Heat
    3. Absolute temperature
    4. Specific heat
    5. Entropy
    6. Extensive and intensive parameters
  6. Thermodynamics (Chapter 5)
    1. Ideal Gases
    2. Maxwell relations
    3. Heat engines and refrigerators
  7. Basic methods of statistical mechanics (chapter 6)
    1. microcanonical ensemble
    2. canonical ensemble
    3. grand canonical ensemble
  8. Simple applications (chapter 7)
    1. Paramagnetism of spin 1/2 particles
    2. Harmonic oscillator; Classical equipartition theorem
    3. Ideal gas
    4. Specific heat of solids
  9. Quantum statistics (chapter 9)
    1. Symmetry considerations
    2. Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics
    3. Bose-Einstein statistics
    4. Fermi-Dirac statistics
  10. Applications of quantum statistics (chapter 9)
    1. Ideal gas - classical limit
    2. Degenerate Fermi gas: electrons in metals and white dwarf stars
    3. Black body radiation
    4. Bose-Einstein condensation
  11. Systems of interacting particles (chapter 10)
    1. Debye specific heat of solids
    2. Ferromagnetism
    3. Ising Model