Elementary Lectures in Statistical Mechanics (Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics) - Hardcover

Phillies, George D.J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0387989188 ISBN 13: 9780387989181

Publisher: Springer, 1999

Synopsis

This volume is based on courses on Statistical Mechanics which I have taught for many years at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. My objective is to treat classical statistical mechanics and its modem applications, especially interacting particles, correlation functions, and time-dependent phenomena. My development is based primarily on Gibbs's ensemble formulation. Elementary Lectures in Statistical Mechanics is meant as a (relatively sophis­ ticated) undergraduate or (relatively straightforward) graduate text for physics students. It should also be suitable as a graduate text for physical chemistry stu­ dents. Physicists may find my treatment of algebraic manipulation to be more explicit than some other volumes. In my experience some of our colleagues are perhaps a bit over-enthusiastic about the ability or tendency of our students to complete gaps in the derivations. I emphasize a cyclic development of major themes. I could have begun with a fully detailed formal treatment of ensemble mechanics, as found in Gibbs's volume, and then given material realizations. I instead interleave formal discussions with simple concrete models. The models illustrate the formal definitions. The approach here gives students a chance to identify fundamental principles and methods before getting buried in ancillary details.

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MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS
"Critical depth and vivid presentation of concepts are the best qualities of this textbook, which can be recommended for an introductory course in statistical mechanics...”

Synopsis

This textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in physics and physical chemistry covers the major areas of statistical mechanics and concludes with a demonstration of applications of statistical mechanics at the level of current research. The presentation begins with the fundamental ideas of averages and ensembles, focusing on classical systems described by continuous variables such as position and momentum, and using the ideal gas as an example. It then turns to quantum systems, beginning with diatomic molecules and working up through blackbody radiation and chemical equilibria. The discussion of equilibrium properties of systems of interacting particles includes presents such techniques as cluster expansions and distribution functions and uses non-ideal gases, liquids, and solutions as examples. Dynamic behavior - treated more extensively than in other texts - is discussed from the point of view of correlation functions. The text concludes with a problem of current research, namely diffusion in a suspension of interacting hard spheres and what can be learned about such a system from scattered light.

Intended for a one-semester course, the text includes several "asides" on topics that are usually omitted from introductory courses, as well as numerous problems at the ends of chapters.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387989188
• ISBN 13: 9780387989181
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 447