Lectures: 10-11am on Mon, Wed and Fri, in Hennings 201.

Calendar Description: Principles and applications of statistical mechanics. Ideal gases, degenerate Fermi gases, Bose-Einstein condensation, black body radiation, fluctuations and phase transitions. Credit will be granted for only one of PHYS 403 or PHYS 455.

Course Textbook: Statistical and Thermal Physics, Fundamentals and Applications, M. D. Sturge, pub. by A. K. Peters (2003).

The 2 main sources of material for the course will be the lecture notes - to be posted on this webpage - and the course book.

Credits: 3

Grading: (tentatively)

• 50%: assignments and mid-term
• 50%: final exam

Exam Topics

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION: This course is intended to give an understanding of Statistical Mechanics, with the main emphasis on quantum-mechanical systems. The emphasis will be on a derivation of general properties of many-body macroscopic systems starting from either the canonical or grand canonical partition functions, and applications of the techniques to several key model systems, and to various real physical systems. We will also make, wherever possible, the link to thermodynamnics.

The main goals of the course will be (i) to give you a deeper understanding of what statistical mechanics is all about (and help you understand some probabalistic methods while doing this); and (ii) to teach you to apply the methods to solve practical problems.

Tentative Syllabus: