Physics 203 -
Statistical Mechanics
Tu Th 4:25 PM-5:40 PM Physics 299
Gleb Finkelstein, Rm.
099,
phone: 660-2523, e-mail: gleb at duke
Office hours: Wednesday 8:30-10:00 am + 15 min. after the class
Office hours: Friday 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Textbooks
Main one:
Statistical Mechanics, 2nd Edition, by R.K. Pathria (Elsevier)
Also, have a look at these books (
for the following subjects listed according to the syllabus)
Statistical Physics (Part 1), by Landau & Lifshitz on reserve in the library (1c-4a)
Statistical Mechanics, by S.-K. Ma (4)
Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, by F. Reif (6, but also 3-5)
Statistical Mechanics, by K. Huang (5)
Physical Kinetics, by E M Lifshitz and L P Pitaevskii (5)
Statistical Physics I: Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics by M. Toda, R. Kubo, N. Saito and M. Toda (1-2)
The Principles of Statistical Mechanics, by R.C. Tolman (1a)
Statistical Mechanics: A Set of Lectures by R.P. Feynman (1c)
Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics, by H.B. Callen (0 - refresh your thermodynamics)
in no particular order
Syllabus
1. Formulation of Statistical Mechanics:
a. Ensemble Theory, Liouville's equation
b. Canonical and Grand Canonical Ensemble
c. Density matrix, Wigner function
2. Gases:
a. Classical ideal: rotations, vibrations
b. Bose: condensation, black-body radiation, Debye model
c. Fermi: heat capacitance, magnetization (Pauli and Landau), Thomas-Fermi model
3. Non-ideal Gas:
a. Cluster expansion
b. Van der Vaals gas
4. Phase Transitions:
a. Landau functional
b. Ising model
c. Mean field approximation
5. Kinetic Theory:
a. Heat conductance
b. H theorem
6. Fluctuations:
a. Brownian motion,
b. Fluctuation-Dissipation theorem,
c. Johnson–Nyquist noise
Lecture notes
(they are not original or proof-read, but will give you a general idea of material covered)
Graded Material
Problem sets (mostly weekly): 40 %
Midterm exam: 20 %
Final exam: 40 %
The midterm exam covered all subjects through 2a (classical ideal gases)
The final will include all subjects covered in HW (currently syllabus items 1-4, possibly 5-6 as well)
Final
EXAM
TTH, PERIOD 6, 4:25 or 4:40 PM Friday, May 2 9:00 AM - NOON
Spring 2008, last updated: 7-January-2008
Originally prepared for Spring 2007.