Thermal & Statistical Physics

10 units · Undergraduate

Fall: 10 units This course introduces systems with many degrees of freedom, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics, both at a classical and a quantum level. Macroscopic concepts, such as temperature, entropy, heat, energy, and pressure, are explored, together with the laws and the relations that govern them. The origins of these laws and concepts are derived from microscopic scales in terms of ensembles and partition functions and their related thermodynamic potentials. These ideas are illustrated through several specific systems and #8212; ideal gases, Einstein solids, paramagnets and #8212; before proceeding to examples of phase transitions, chemical equilibrium, and distributions. A portion of the course is devoted to quantum systems, such as the origins of blackbody radiation, degenerate Fermi gases, and Bose-Einstein condensation. Prerequisites: 33-231 and 33-232 and 33-234