- To understand the concept of statistical ensembles: microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical
- To understand the concept of entropy in the three ensembles
- To be able to compute the partition function and all basic thermodynamic quantities for a given non-interacting system using both quantum and classical description
- To become familiar with the concept of second quantization
- To understand Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions and their relation to Planck and Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
- To understand the concept of the order parameter in Landau and Ginzburg-Landau tehory of phase transitions
- To understand the concepts of Bose condensation and the basics of superfluidity and superconductivity
|
|
Statistical mechanics obtains macroscopic laws of thermodynamics from microscopic description of the system. To appreciate the connection it is, therefore, important to understand quantum and classical mechanics as well as theromdynamics. From mathematics side one should be familiar with the concept of probability and with statistical methods in general.
This course gives an introduction to statistical mechanics and is, therefore, focused mostly on (i) equilibrium properties and (ii) model systems. |
|