## Mass-radius relationship for white dwarfs

• White dwarf Mass Density Energy
• assignment Diatomic hydrogen

assignment Homework

##### Diatomic hydrogen
rigid rotor hamiltonian angular momentum ground state hydrogen diatomic probability Energy and Entropy 2021 (2 years)

At low temperatures, a diatomic molecule can be well described as a rigid rotor. The Hamiltonian of such a system is simply proportional to the square of the angular momentum \begin{align} H &= \frac{1}{2I}L^2 \end{align} and the energy eigenvalues are \begin{align} E_{\ell m} &= \hbar^2 \frac{\ell(\ell+1)}{2I} \end{align}

1. What is the energy of the ground state and the first and second excited states of the $H_2$ molecule? i.e. the lowest three distinct energy eigenvalues.

2. At room temperature, what is the relative probability of finding a hydrogen molecule in the $\ell=0$ state versus finding it in any one of the $\ell=1$ states?
i.e. what is $P_{\ell=0,m=0}/\left(P_{\ell=1,m=-1} + P_{\ell=1,m=0} + P_{\ell=1,m=1}\right)$

3. At what temperature is the value of this ratio 1?

4. At room temperature, what is the probability of finding a hydrogen molecule in any one of the $\ell=2$ states versus that of finding it in the ground state?
i.e. what is $P_{\ell=0,m=0}/\left(P_{\ell=2,m=-2} + P_{\ell=2,m=-1} + \cdots + P_{\ell=2,m=2}\right)$

• assignment Pressure and entropy of a degenerate Fermi gas

assignment Homework

##### Pressure and entropy of a degenerate Fermi gas
Fermi gas Pressure Entropy Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020
1. Show that a Fermi electron gas in the ground state exerts a pressure \begin{align} p = \frac{\left(3\pi^2\right)^{\frac23}}{5} \frac{\hbar^2}{m}\left(\frac{N}{V}\right)^{\frac53} \end{align} In a uniform decrease of the volume of a cube every orbital has its energy raised: The energy of each orbital is proportional to $\frac1{L^2}$ or to $\frac1{V^{\frac23}}$.

2. Find an expression for the entropy of a Fermi electron gas in the region $kT\ll \varepsilon_F$. Notice that $S\rightarrow 0$ as $T\rightarrow 0$.

• face Fermi and Bose gases

face Lecture

120 min.

##### Fermi and Bose gases
Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

These lecture notes from week 7 of Thermal and Statistical Physics apply the grand canonical ensemble to fermion and bosons ideal gasses. They include a few small group activities.
• assignment Circle Trigonometry

assignment Homework

##### Circle Trigonometry
trigonometry cosine sine math circle Quantum Fundamentals 2022 (2 years)

On the following diagrams, mark both $\theta$ and $\sin\theta$ for $\theta_1=\frac{5\pi}{6}$ and $\theta_2=\frac{7\pi}{6}$. Write one to three sentences about how these two representations are related to each other. (For example, see: this PHET)

• assignment Calculation of $\frac{dT}{dp}$ for water

assignment Homework

##### Calculation of $\frac{dT}{dp}$ for water
Clausius-Clapeyron Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020 Calculate based on the Clausius-Clapeyron equation the value of $\frac{dT}{dp}$ near $p=1\text{atm}$ for the liquid-vapor equilibrium of water. The heat of vaporization at $100^\circ\text{C}$ is $2260\text{ J g}^{-1}$. Express the result in kelvin/atm.
• assignment Energy of a relativistic Fermi gas

assignment Homework

##### Energy of a relativistic Fermi gas
Fermi gas Relativity Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

For electrons with an energy $\varepsilon\gg mc^2$, where $m$ is the mass of the electron, the energy is given by $\varepsilon\approx pc$ where $p$ is the momentum. For electrons in a cube of volume $V=L^3$ the momentum takes the same values as for a non-relativistic particle in a box.

1. Show that in this extreme relativistic limit the Fermi energy of a gas of $N$ electrons is given by \begin{align} \varepsilon_F &= \hbar\pi c\left(\frac{3n}{\pi}\right)^{\frac13} \end{align} where $n\equiv \frac{N}{V}$ is the number density.

2. Show that the total energy of the ground state of the gas is \begin{align} U_0 &= \frac34 N\varepsilon_F \end{align}

• assignment Boltzmann probabilities

assignment Homework

##### Boltzmann probabilities
Energy Entropy Boltzmann probabilities Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020 (3 years) Consider a three-state system with energies $(-\epsilon,0,\epsilon)$.
1. At infinite temperature, what are the probabilities of the three states being occupied? What is the internal energy $U$? What is the entropy $S$?
2. At very low temperature, what are the three probabilities?
3. What are the three probabilities at zero temperature? What is the internal energy $U$? What is the entropy $S$?
4. What happens to the probabilities if you allow the temperature to be negative?
• assignment Pressure of thermal radiation

assignment Homework

Thermal radiation Pressure Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

(modified from K&K 4.6) We discussed in class that \begin{align} p &= -\left(\frac{\partial F}{\partial V}\right)_T \end{align} Use this relationship to show that

1. \begin{align} p &= -\sum_j \langle n_j\rangle\hbar \left(\frac{d\omega_j}{dV}\right), \end{align} where $\langle n_j\rangle$ is the number of photons in the mode $j$;

2. Solve for the relationship between pressure and internal energy.

• face Entropy and Temperature

face Lecture

120 min.

##### Entropy and Temperature
Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

These lecture notes for the second week of Thermal and Statistical Physics involve relating entropy and temperature in the microcanonical ensemble, using a paramagnet as an example. These notes include a few small group activities.
• face Gibbs entropy approach

face Lecture

120 min.

##### Gibbs entropy approach
Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

These lecture notes for the first week of Thermal and Statistical Physics include a couple of small group activities in which students work with the Gibbs formulation of the entropy.
• Thermal and Statistical Physics 2020

Consider a white dwarf of mass $M$ and radius $R$. The dwarf consists of ionized hydrogen, thus a bunch of free electrons and protons, each of which are fermions. Let the electrons be degenerate but nonrelativistic; the protons are nondegenerate.

1. Show that the order of magnitude of the gravitational self-energy is $-\frac{GM^2}{R}$, where $G$ is the gravitational constant. (If the mass density is constant within the sphere of radius $R$, the exact potential energy is $-\frac53\frac{GM^2}{R}$).

2. Show that the order of magnitude of the kinetic energy of the electrons in the ground state is \begin{align} \frac{\hbar^2N^{\frac53}}{mR^2} \approx \frac{\hbar^2M^{\frac53}}{mM_H^{\frac53}R^2} \end{align} where $m$ is the mass of an electron and $M_H$ is the mas of a proton.

3. Show that if the gravitational and kinetic energies are of the same order of magnitude (as required by the virial theorem of mechanics), $M^{\frac13}R \approx 10^{20} \text{g}^{\frac13}\text{cm}$.

4. If the mass is equal to that of the Sun ($2\times 10^{33}g$), what is the density of the white dwarf?

5. It is believed that pulsars are stars composed of a cold degenerate gas of neutrons (i.e. neutron stars). Show that for a neutron star $M^{\frac13}R \approx 10^{17}\text{g}^{\frac13}\text{cm}$. What is the value of the radius for a neutron star with a mass equal to that of the Sun? Express the result in $\text{km}$.