Ph 127a – Fall 2007                   Statistical Physics

Instructor:  

            Gil Refael
            117 Sloan Annex, x4705

            refael{at}caltech.edu
            Office Hours : Thursday 5-6:30.          

Grader:

            Waheb Bishara

            131 Sloan Annex, x2288

            waheb{at}caltech.edu
            Office Hours : Monday 5-6:30.

Syllabus and General Info

Final Exam

Please read the instructions in the cover page first : Final Exam Cover Page
The exam is due on Friday, Dec. 14th , 5pm, in Gil's mailbox. Good Luck!     Final Exam Solutions

Lecture Notes

Lecture 1-3  Microcanonical ensemble, free spins, laws of thermodynamics, negative temperature  
Lecture 4  Canonical ensemble, Boltzmann factor, partition function, von Neumann entropy.                 
Lecture 5  Ergodic principle, fluctuation and heat capacity, free energy and its derivatives.  
Lecture 6  Ideal gases. 
Lecture 7  Chemical potential, grand cannonical ensemble. 
Lecture 8  Ideal gas in the grand-canonical ensemble, thermodynamic potentials.
Atmospheric pressure supplement  - Setting the record on the isothermal atmoshpere straight.
Lecture 9 Gibbs-Duhem relation, partial derivatives.    
Lecture 10-11  Thermodynamics of magnetic systems.
Lecture 12-13  Quantum stat. mech.

Lecture 14-15  Quantum gases and Fermions.
Lecture 16   Black-body radiation.
Lecture 17-18   Bose-Einstein conensation and the dilute Bose gas.

Lecture 19   First-order (specifically, the liquid-gas) phase transitions.

Homework

Problem Set 1 Solutions
Problem Set 2 Solutions
Problem Set 3 Solutions
Problem Set 4 Solutions

Problem Set 5 Solutions

Supplements

Negative Temperature : E. M. Purcell, R. V. Pound, Phys. Rev. 81, 279 (1951).
Magnetic Cooling: E. Ambler, R. P. Hudson.

         BEC websites:  Ketterle's group at MIT

Jila at Boulder, CO