A&EP 423 (Statistical Thermodynamics) Fall 2007
Lecturer: Scott Heinekamp (swh6@cornell.edu) Clark 239 o:4-6750 h:(315) 364-7676
aurora.wells.edu/~swh is my home page
Lecture 10:10-11:00 MWF Baker 119 Section 1:25-3:00 Thurs Rock 231
Heinekamp's Office Hours: Monday 9:00-10:00 Wednesday 1:00-2:30 or by appt.
Teaching Assistant and Section Person: Simon Lefrancois (sl694@cornell.edu)
Course Description and Intent: As a discipline, Thermal Physics "inhabits" all physical science.
When a system made of large numbers of entities that interact with one another (could be classical particles, or "charges", or quantum excitations like electrons or photons, or artificial-but-conceptually-valuable beasties like "spins"), a complete microscopic description cannot be attempted. Yet, invariably, a few identifiable THERMODYNAMIC VARIABLES emerge to describe the system's macroscopically-observed properties. Thus, thermodynamics is only partly a theory, tied as it is so strongly to experiment.
It's full of mathematics but the theory is encoded in a handful of (numbered) THERMODYNAMIC LAWS.
Apart from the thermodynamic variable called temperature, the laws governing the interactions in the system will determine other thermodynamic variables: pressure and volume, perhaps, or magnetic field and magnetization, or chemical potential and particle count. We'll look at thermodynamic processes, where some quantities ar useful but aren't true "state variables": like work, and heat. And there'll be other, stranger, variables, like entropy and the various thermodynamic potentials.
Why is the course called Statistical Thermodynamics? The way we connect the micro-world to the macro-world -- for it is solely the theorists who dwell in the micro realm, while the experimentalists can only measure the macro -- is the theory of STATISTICAL MECHANICS. From it, along with thermodynamics, physicists have created a fantastically powerful way of viewing complex systems. And its rules don't "break down" in extreme situations: it can help us understand elementary particles, and atomic systems, and technologically useful devices and materials, and stars, and even black holes.
List of Topics:Part I (3 weeks) Kinetic Theory. Gas Laws. Maxwell Distributions. Thermodynamic processes. Work, Heat and Internal Energy. Reversibility and Equilibrium. Temperature.
Part II (4 weeks) Entropy. Mathematics of Equations of State. Thermodynamic Functions and Maxwell Relations. Probability. Elementary Statistical Mechanics and Entropy. Boltzmann's Factor. Ensembles Defined.
Part III (4 weeks) Canonical Ensemble. Helmholtz's Free Energy. Particle Statistics. Wave Statistics. Grand C.E.
Part IV (3 weeks) Examples: Low-temperature Physics/Phase Transitions/Astrophysics
Textbook: Introductory Statistical Mechanics (2nd edition) by Bowley & Sanchez is clear and carefully written and stands on its own. Homework will often be taken from it. We will use Reif's Statistical and Thermal Physics, too, as a supplement (on reserve in Physical Sciences Library). It explains the physics in more detail! You are encouraged to read both books.
Basis of Your Grade:
Homework (35%): Homework will be due at 5 pm on Friday. Not every problem will be graded.
Quizzes/Prelim (35% = 10% + 15% [prelim] + 10%): Three "exam experiences", taken in section. The first and third will be briefer, while the second one will be more or less like a midterm.
Final Exam (30%) will be held Wed 12 Dec 7:00 - 9:30 pm