Physics 508 Statistical Mechanics
Spring Semester 2008
Note: Below is a preliminary list of topics that may change
during the course of the semesters.
"Chapters" refer to class notes rather than to the text.
Chapter 1: Fundamental Principles of Statistical Physics
- Review of topics in Classical Mechanics
- Hamilton's equations, phase space
- Phase flow
- Liouville's theorem
- Poincare's recurrence theorem
- Necessity of a statistical description of many-particle systems
- Statistical methods
- Probability
- Binomial distribution
- Poisson distributions
- Averages & fluctuations
- Continuous distributions
- Gaussian distribution and the central limit thereom
- Review of Thermodynamics
- Statistical description of large systems
- The equilibrium state
- Statistical ensembles
- Quantum statistical mechanics
Chapter 2: Selected Applications
- Classical Systems
- The ideal Fermi gas
- The ideal Bose gas
- Maxwell's velocity distribution
Chapter 3: Phase Transitions
- Phenomenology and classification of phase transitions
- An exactly solvable model: The 1D Ising model
- Renormalization group
Chapter 4: Kinetic Theory
Chapter 5: Numerical Simulations
Chapter 6: Topics in Non-Equilibrium Stat Mech (time permitting)
Text
The official text for the course is Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium
Statistical Thermodynamics by Le Bellac, Mortessagne and Batrouni.
Other useful texts are Statistical Physics 3rd Edition Part 1,
Course of Theoretical Physics Volume 5 by
Landau and Lifshitz, and Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal
Physics by Reif.
Problem Assignments and Exam Dates
Problem Assignment 1 due 02/05/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 2 due 02/12/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 3 due 02/19/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 4 due 02/26/08
( PDF )
Exam 1 March 6, 2008
Problem Assignment 5 due 03/20/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 6 due 03/27/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 7 due 04/03/08
( PDF ) *there may be an extension on this, given
that we haven't yet covered this material.
Exam 2 April 17, 2008
Problem Assignment 8 due 04/24/08
( PDF )
Problem Assignment 9 due 05/01/08
( PDF )
Final Exam Wednesday, May 14, 2008 @ 1:30pm in
Workman 310
Homework due dates and exam dates are subject to change.
| Problem Assignments |
34% |
| Exam 1 |
22% |
| Exam 2 |
22% |
| Final Exam |
22% |