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Statistical Physics of Particles

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ISBN-10: 0521873428

ISBN-13: 9780521873420

Edition: 2007

Authors: Mehran Kardar

List price: $80.99
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Description:

Statistical physics has its origins in attempts to describe the thermal properties of matter in terms of its constituent particles, and has played a fundamental role in the development of quantum mechanics. Based on lectures for a course in statistical mechanics taught by Professor Kardar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this textbook introduces the central concepts and tools of statistical physics. It contains a chapter on probability and related issues such as the central limit theorem and information theory, and covers interacting particles, with an extensive description of the van der Waals equation and its derivation by mean field approximation. It also contains an integrated…    
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Book details

List price: $80.99
Copyright year: 2007
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 6/7/2007
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 330
Size: 7.50" wide x 9.75" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 2.090
Language: English

Mehran Kardar is Professor of Physics at MIT, where he has taught and researched in the field of Statistical Physics for the past twenty years. He received his BA in Cambridge, and gained his PhD at MIT. Professor Kardar has held research and visiting positions as a junior fellow at Harvard, a Guggenheim fellow at Oxford, UCSB, and at Berkeley as a Miller Fellow.

Preface
Thermodynamics
Introduction
The zeroth law
The first law
The second law
Carnot engines
Entropy
Approach to equilibrium and thermodynamic potentials
Useful mathematical results
Stability conditions
The third law
Problems
Probability
General definitions
One random variable
Some important probability distributions
Many random variables
Sums of random variables and the central limit theorem
Rules for large numbers
Information, entropy, and estimation
Problems
Kinetic theory of gases
General definitions
Liouville's theorem
The Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy
The Boltzmann equation
The H-theorem and irreversibility
Equilibrium properties
Conservation laws
Zeroth-order hydrodynamics
First-order hydrodynamics
Problems
Classical statistical mechanics
General definitions
The microcanonical ensemble
Two-level systems
The ideal gas
Mixing entropy and the Gibbs paradox
The canonical ensemble
Canonical examples
The Gibbs canonical ensemble
The grand canonical ensemble
Problems
Interacting particles
The cumulant expansion
The cluster expansion
The second virial coefficient and van der Waals equation
Breakdown of the van der Waals equation
Mean-field theory of condensation
Variational methods
Corresponding states
Critical point behavior
Problems
Quantum statistical mechanics
Dilute polyatomic gases
Vibrations of a solid
Black-body radiation
Quantum microstates
Quantum macrostates
Problems
Ideal quantum gases
Hilbert space of identical particles
Canonical formulation
Grand canonical formulation
Non-relativistic gas
The degenerate fermi gas
The degenerate bose gas
Superfluid He[superscript 4]
Problems
Solutions to selected problems
Index