An introduction to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics /

This text presents statistical mechanics and thermodynamics as a theoretically integrated field of study. It stresses deep coverage of fundamentals, providing a natural foundation for advanced topics--

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Swendsen, Robert H.
Corporate Author: Knovel (Firm)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Language Notes:English.
Published: Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2012.
Series:Oxford graduate texts.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • The classical ideal gas
  • Discrete probability theory
  • The classical ideal gas: configurational entropy
  • Continuous random numbers
  • The classical ideal gas: energy-dependence
  • Classical gases: ideal and otherwise
  • Temperature, pressure, chemical potential, and all that
  • The postulates and laws of thermodynamics
  • Perturbations of thermodynamic state functions
  • Thermodynamic processes
  • Thermodynamic potentials
  • The consequences of extensivity
  • Thermodynamic identities
  • Extremum principles
  • Stability conditions
  • Phase transitions
  • The Nernst postulate: the third law of thermodynamics
  • Ensembles in classical statistical mechanics
  • Classical ensembles: grand and otherwise
  • Irreversibility
  • Quantum ensembles
  • Quantum canonical ensemble
  • Black-body radiation
  • The harmonic solid
  • Ideal quantum gases
  • Bose-Einstein statistics
  • Fermi-Dirac statistics
  • Insulators and semiconductors
  • Phase transitions and the Ising model
  • Appendix: computer calculations and VPython.