PHYS 603, Spring 2007
"Methods of Statistical Physics"
Prof. Victor M. Yakovenko

Textbook: Gregory H. Wannier "Statistical Physics",
Dover 1987 reprint of the 1966 edition, ISBN 0-486-65401-X

Timeline of the course

Week
Tuesday, March 27, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 3 "Statistical Counting in Mechanics"
Thursday, March 29, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 3 "Statistical Counting in Mechanics", HW 3
Week
Tuesday, April 3, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 4 "The Gibbs-Boltzmann Distribution"
Thursday, April 5, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 4 "The Gibbs-Boltzmann Distribution"
Thursday, April 5, 16:00-17:15 Ch. 4 "The Gibbs-Boltzmann Distribution", HW 4
Week
Tuesday, April 10, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 5 "Statistical Justification of the Second Law"
Thursday, April 12, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 5 "Statistical Justification of the Second Law"
Ch. 8.3, Ch. 8.4 Gibbs Paradox
Thursday, April 12, 16:00-17:15 Ch. 5 "Statistical Justification of the Second Law",
Ch. 8.3, Ch. 8.4 Gibbs Paradox, HW 5
Week
Tuesday, April 17, 9:30-10:45 Landau-Lifshitz vol.5 Ch.4 Sec.40 "The Entropy of an Ideal Non-equilibrium Gas"
Thursday, April 19, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 7 "Thermodynamic Exploration of the Second Law; Mass Transfer Problems"
Thursday, April 19, 16:00-17:15 Ch. 7 "Thermodynamic Exploration of the Second Law; Mass Transfer Problems", HW 6
Week
Tuesday, April 24, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 8 "The Grand Ensemble; Classical Statistics of Independent Particles"
Thursday, April 26, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 9 "Quantum Statistics of Independent Particles", HW 7
Thursday, April 26, 16:00-17:15 Landau-Lifshitz vol.5 Ch.5 Sec.55 "The Entropy of Non-equilibrium Fermi and Bose Gases"
Week
Tuesday, May 1, 9:30-10:45 Discussion of HW 6
Ch. 9-3 "Theory of the Perfect Fermi Gas"
Thursday, May 3, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 14-4 "Electronic Heat Capacity in Metals"
Thursday, May 3, 16:00-17:15 Ch. 9-5 "Bose-Einstein Condensation"
Week
Tuesday, May 8, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 10 "Thermal Properties of Electromagnetic Radiation"
Ch. 13-1, 13-4 "Debye Theory of the Heat Capacity of Solids"
Thursday, May 10, 9:30-10:45 Ch. 15 "Statistics of Magnetism"
Final Exam
Monday, May 14, 8-10 am, room 1201 About 3 problems from past qualifier exams.  Open book exam - you can use textbook and any other materials.

Last updated May 06, 2007