Lectures on Statistical Mechanics

✍ Scribed by M. G. Bowler (Auth.)

• Publisher: Pergamon
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 127
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Anyone dissatisfied with the almost ritual dullness of many 'standard' texts in statistical mechanics will be grateful for the lucid explanation and generally reassuring tone. Aimed at securing firm foundations for equilibrium statistical mechanics, topics of great subtlety are presented transparently and enthusiastically. Very little mathematical preparation is required beyond elementary calculus and prerequisites in physics are limited to some elementary classical thermodynamics. Suitable as a basis for a first course in statistical mechanics, the book is an ideal supplement to more conventional texts

✦ Table of Contents

Content:
Other Pergamon Titles of Interest, Page ii
Front Matter, Page iii
Copyright, Page iv
PREFACE, Pages v-viii
Lecture 1 - SOME STATISTICS AND A PROBLEM IN MECHANICS, Pages 1-6
Lecture 2 - STATES OF EQUILIBRIUM, Pages 7-14
Lecture 3 - TRADITION, Pages 15-21
Lecture 4 - CRITICAL ANALYSIS, Pages 22-27
Lecture 5 - THE CLASSICAL PERFECT GAS, Pages 28-34
Lecture 6 - THE EQUIPARTITION OF ENERGY AND SOME SPECIFIC HEATS, Pages 35-41
Lecture 7 - SOME THERMODYNAMIC FUNCTIONS, Pages 42-48
Lecture 8 - THERMODYNAMICS OF AN IDEAL GAS, Pages 49-54
Lecture 9 - ENTROPY OF MIXING: GIBBS' PARADOX, Pages 55-61
Lecture 10 - INDISTINGUISHABILITY AND EXCHANGE DEGENERACY, Pages 62-68
Lecture 11 - THE BETTER WAY: CANONICAL AND GRAND CANONICAL APPROACHES, Pages 69-77
Lecture 12 - MEAN VALUES AND FLUCTUATIONS, Pages 78-84
Lecture 13 - IDENTICAL PARTICLES AGAIN, Pages 85-90
Lecture 14 - BOSONS: BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION AND BLACK BODY RADIATION, Pages 91-97
Lecture 15 - DEGENERATE FERMI GASES, Pages 98-104
Lecture 16 - GRAVITATION, Pages 105-113
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON STATISTICAL MECHANICS, Pages 114-116
INDEX, Pages 117-120