Course plan
- Elementary theory of gases and introduction into thermodynamic concepts.
- Basics of thermodynamics: laws of thermodynamics, entropy, work and heat, reversible and irreversible processes, quasistatic processes.
- Entropy, second law, and implications: maximization of entropy, equilibrium conditions, stability conditions, quasistatic cycles, heat engines.
- Thermodynamic potentials: minimum principles, stability conditions, Maxwell relations.
- Applications I: free expansion, throttling, ideal mixtures, dilute solutions, co-existence of phases.
- Applications II: co-existence of mixtures, electrochemical potential, local thermodynamic equilibrium, convection.
- Basics of statistical physics: microstate vs macrostate, multiplicity, the statistical entropy, the information entropy, examples of physical systems, statistics of particles.
- Statistics and ensembles: the microcanonical ensemble, the canonical ensemble, fluctuations.
- Applications of the canonical ensemble.
- The grand canonical ensemble.
- The grand canonical partition function: absorption, indistinguishable particles, occupation number.
- Applications of the ensembles: ideal gases of particles, the Maxwell-Bolztmann, Bose-Einstein, and Fermi-Dirac statistics, the blackbody radiation, the degenerate Fermi gas, the BE condensation.
Last modified: Monday, 20 September 2021, 7:57 PM