Basic principles of Thermodynamics. Entropy. Thermodynamic potentials. Open systems. Phase equilibrium and transitions. Low Temperatures. Ideas and principles of statistical physics: thermodynamic vs. mechanical properties, statistical description, statistical ensemble and distribution, ergodicity, quantum vs. classical mechanical description. Microcanonical ensemble: Liouville's thorem, microcanonical distribution, number of microscopic states. Canonical ensemble: Boltzmann's distribution, canonical partition function, thermodynamic properties in canonical ensembles. Quasiclassical approximation: equipartition theorem, Maxwell-Boltzmann's distribution, Barometric formula. Classical ideal gas: classical approximation, de Broglie wavelength, contributions to canonical partition function and thermodynamic properties: translational, rotational, vibrational, electronic. Heat capacity. Ideal crystal: Classical, Einstein and Debye models, partition functions and heat capacity. Quantum ideal gasses: Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, blackbody radiation. Interacting systems: molecular models, interaction energy and potentials, virial equation for gasses, the second virial coefficient. Numerical methods in statistical physics: Monte Carlo, Metropolis algorithm, molecular simulation.
|