(K&K 7.11) Show for a single orbital of a fermion system that \begin{align} \left<(\Delta N)^2\right> = \left<N\right>(1+\left<N\right>) \end{align} if \(\left<N\right>\) is the average number of fermions in that orbital. Notice that the fluctuation vanishes for orbitals with energies far enough from the chemical potential \(\mu\) so that \(\left<N\right>=1\) or \(\left<N\right>=0\).
  • Found in: Thermal and Statistical Physics course(s)

face Lecture

30 min.

Review of Thermal Physics
These are notes, essentially the equation sheet, from the final review session for Thermal and Statistical Physics.

face Lecture

120 min.

Ideal Gas
These notes from week 6 of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover the ideal gas from a grand canonical standpoint starting with the solutions to a particle in a three-dimensional box. They include a number of small group activities.

Consider a paramagnet, which is a material with \(n\) spins per unit volume each of which may each be either “up” or “down”. The spins have energy \(\pm mB\) where \(m\) is the magnetic dipole moment of a single spin, and there is no interaction between spins. The magnetization \(M\) is defined as the total magnetic moment divided by the total volume. Hint: each individual spin may be treated as a two-state system, which you have already worked with above.

Plot of magnetization vs. B field

  1. Find the Helmholtz free energy of a paramagnetic system (assume \(N\) total spins) and show that \(\frac{F}{NkT}\) is a function of only the ratio \(x\equiv \frac{mB}{kT}\).

  2. Use the canonical ensemble (i.e. partition function and probabilities) to find an exact expression for the total magentization \(M\) (which is the total dipole moment per unit volume) and the susceptibility \begin{align} \chi\equiv\left(\frac{\partial M}{\partial B}\right)_T \end{align} as a function of temperature and magnetic field for the model system of magnetic moments in a magnetic field. The result for the magnetization is \begin{align} M=nm\tanh\left(\frac{mB}{kT}\right) \end{align} where \(n\) is the number of spins per unit volume. The figure shows what this magnetization looks like.

  3. Show that the susceptibility is \(\chi=\frac{nm^2}{kT}\) in the limit \(mB\ll kT\).

  • Found in: Thermal and Statistical Physics course(s)

face Lecture

120 min.

Gibbs entropy approach
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.
These notes, from the third week of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover the canonical ensemble and Helmholtz free energy. They include a number of small group activities.
These notes from the fifth week of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover the grand canonical ensemble. They include several small group activities.

face Lecture

120 min.

Fermi and Bose gases
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.

face Lecture

120 min.

Phase transformations
These lecture notes from the ninth week of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover phase transformations, the Clausius-Clapeyron relation, mean field theory and more. They include a number of small group activities.