Physics 540
Statistical Mechanics I
Spring 2002
Tuesday & Thursday, 11:20am-12:40pm.
Physics P-127
Instructor: Dr. Alexander (Sasha) Abanov,
Assistant Professor
Office: Physics B-102
Office hours: Thursday 4-6pm or by appointment.
Phone: (631)632-8174
E-mail:
alexandre.abanov@sunysb.edu
Web page:
http://felix.physics.sunysb.edu/~abanov/
Teaching Assistant: T. J. Walls
Office: Physics C-119
Office hours: Wednesday 11am-12:30pm or by appointment.
Phone: (631)632-4077
E-mail:
twalls@grad.physics.sunysb.edu
Introduction
I will use the book by Landau and Lifshitz as a main textbook for
this course. In addition the book by Kubo et.al. is required. The latter
contains a lot of problems in statistical physics with solutions.
Solving problems is going to be a very important part of the
course.
The final grade for this course will be based on grades for
homeworks (70%) and on the grade for the final exam (30%).
Topics to be covered
Here is a list of topics I am planning to cover
in the course.
- Phase space and distribution function
- Gibbs distribution
- Thermodynamics
- Boltzmann, Fermi, and Bose ideal gases.
- Non-ideal gases.
- Phase transitions.
- Fluctuations
Required Books
These books are required. They are
available from the University bookstore.
-
L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz et al,
Statistical Physics,
3rd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 0750633727.
-
R. Kubo et al, Statistical Mechanics,
12th repr. 1992 edition, Elsevier Science, ISBN 0444871039
Additional Books
-
F. Reif,
Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics,
1st edition, 1965, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0070518009
Homeworks
-
Homework #1, due Tuesday, February 12, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #2, due Tuesday, February 19, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #3, due Tuesday, February 26, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #4, due Tuesday, March 5, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #5, due Tuesday, March 12, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #6, due Tuesday, March 19, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #7, due Tuesday, April 2, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #8, due Tuesday, April 9, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #9, due Tuesday, April 16, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #10, due Tuesday, April 23, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #11, due Tuesday, April 30, 2002
(PDF )
-
Homework #12, due Tuesday, May 7, 2002
(PDF )
Last updated May 8, 2002