PHY 770 Statistical Mechanics

TR 12:30-1:45 PM OPL 107 http://www.wfu.edu/~natalie/s14phy770/

Instructor: Natalie Holzwarth Phone:758-5510Office:300 OPL e-mail:natalie@wfu.edu

Course schedule for Spring 2014

(Preliminary schedule -- subject to frequent adjustment.) Please note that makeup lectures (indicated in red) are scheduled for Tuesdays or Thursdays at 11 AM - 12:15 PM in Olin 107.
Lecture date
Text Reading
Topic
Assign.
Due date
1 Tue: 01/14/2014 Chap. 3 Review of macroscopic thermodynamics #1 02/04/2014
2 Thu: 01/16/2014 Chap. 3 Review of macroscopic thermodynamics #2 02/04/2014
3 Tue: 01/21/2014 Chap. 3 Thermodynamic potentials #3 02/04/2014
4 Tue: 01/21/2014 Chap. 3 Thermodynamic stability #4 02/04/2014
5 Thu: 01/23/2014 Chap. 3 Thermodynamic stability #5 02/04/2014
Tue: 01/28/2014 NAWH out of town - no class
Thu: 01/30/2014 NAWH out of town - no class
6 Tue: 02/04/2014 Chap. 4 Phase transitions #6 02/11/2014
7 Thur: 02/06/2014 Chap. 2 Microscopic analysis of entropy #7 02/11/2014
8 Thur: 02/06/2014 Chap. 2 Microscopic analysis of entropy #8 02/11/2014
9 Tue: 02/11/2014 Chap. 2 Microscopic analysis of entropy #9 02/18/2014
Thur: 02/13/2014 Class cancelled due to weather
10 Tue: 02/18/2014 Chap. 5 Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics #10 02/27/2014
11 Tue: 02/18/2014 Chap. 5 Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics #11 02/27/2014
12 Thur: 02/20/2014 Chap. 5 The Ising model (class 12-1:45 PM) #12 02/27/2014
Tue: 02/25/2014 NAWH out of town -- no class
13 Thur: 02/27/2014 Chap. 6 Grand partition function (class 12-1:45 PM)
Tue: 03/04/2014 APS Meeting Take-home exam (no class meeting)
Thur: 03/06/2014 APS Meeting Take-home exam (no class meeting)
Tue: 03/11/2014 Spring break (no class meeting)
Thur: 03/13/2014 Spring break (no class meeting)
14 Tue: 03/18/2014 Chap. 6 Fermi and Bose particles (class 12-1:45 PM; Exam due) #13 03/25/2014
15 Thur: 03/20/2014 Chap. 6 Interacting particles (class 12-1:45 PM) #14 03/25/2014
16 Tue: 03/25/2014 Chap. 7 Langevin equation (class 12-1:45 PM) #15 04/01/2014
17 Thur: 03/27/2014 Chap. 7 Fokker-Planck equation (class 12-1:45 PM) #16 04/03/2014
18 Tue: 04/01/2014 Chap. 7 Linear Response (class 12-1:45 PM) #17 04/10/2014
19 Thur: 04/03/2014 Chap. 9 Transport theory (class 12-1:45 PM) #18 04/10/2014
20 Tue: 04/08/2014 Chap. 9 The Boltzmann Equation (class 12-1:45 PM) #19 04/10/2014
21 Thur: 04/10/2014 Chap. 9 The Boltzmann Equation (class 12-1:45 PM) #20 04/17/2014
22 Tue: 04/15/2014 Chap. 9 The Boltzmann Equation (class 12-1:45 PM) #21 04/17/2014
23 Thur: 04/17/2014 Review and highlights (class 12-1:45 PM)
24 Tue: 04/22/2014 Review and highlights (class 12-1:45 PM)
Thur: 04/24/2014 Presentations Part I (class 11-1:45 PM)
Tue: 04/29/2014 Presentations Part II (class 11-1:45 PM)

PHY 770 -- Assignment #1

January 14, 2014

Start reading Chapter 3 in Reichl.

  1. Work problem 3.1 at the end of the chapter.

Scan of problem from text.

Note: This problem is the same as 2.3 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #2

January 16, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 3 in Reichl.

  1. Work problem 3.3 at the end of the chapter.

Scan of problem from text.

Note: This problem is the same as 2.5 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #3

January 21, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 3 in Reichl.

  1. Work problem 3.7 at the end of the chapter. You can express the entropy in terms of V and U.

Note: This problem is the same as 2.9 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #4

January 21, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 3 in Reichl.

  1. Provide the intermediate steps of Exercise 3.8, deriving properties of a system described by the Van der Waals equation of state.

Note: This problem is the same as 2.17 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #5

January 23, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 3 in Reichl.

  1. Provide the intermediate steps to obtain Eq. 3.68 of your textbook. of state.

Note: The equivalent equation is 2.171 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #6

February 4, 2014

Start reading Chapter 4 in Reichl.

  1. Work Problem 4.4 in your textbook.

Note: Problem reads: Approximately, how much pressure must be applied to an ice cube to make it melt at temperature T=-1.5 oC? (Note that the latent heat of fusion of water is 3.33 x 105 J/kg, the density of water is 1000 kg/m3 and the density of ice is 917 kg/m3.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #7

February 6, 2014

Appendix A in Reichl.

  1. Complete the steps leading to the Gaussian probability density function A.39 as derived from the large N limit of the binomial distribution.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #8

February 6, 2014

Chapter 2 in Reichl.

  1. Work Problem 2.7.

Note: The equivalent problem is 7.2 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #9

February 11, 2014

Chapter 2 in Reichl.

  1. Supply the intermediate steps to derive the Sackur-Tetrode equation (2.36) of your text for the entropy of an ideal gas, starting with the beginning of Section 2.6.

Note: The equivalent equations are covered in Exercise 7.2 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #10

February 18, 2014

Finish reading Chapter 2 and start reading Chapter 5 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 5.10 in the 3rd edition text.

Note: The equivalent problem is a combination of 7.12 and 7.13 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #11

February 18, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 5 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 5.6 in the 3rd edition text.

Note: The equivalent problem is 7.10 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #12

February 20, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 5 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 5.11 in the 3rd edition text.

Note: The equivalent problem is 7.14 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #13

March 18, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 6 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 6.13 in the 3rd edition text.

Note: The equivalent problem is 7.21 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #14

March 20, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 6 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 6.5 in the 3rd edition text.

Note: A similar (but not identical) problem is 7.16 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #15

March 25, 2014

Start reading Chapter 7 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 6.4 in the 3rd edition text. Plot the virial coefficient as a function of kT/V0.

Note: This is the same as problem is 9.3 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #16

March 27, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 7 in Reichl.

  1. Solve problem 7.2 in the 3rd edition text

Note: This is the similar to problem is S5.6 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #17

April 1, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 7 in Reichl.

  1. Study the treatment of the piecewise constant force in Sec. 7.5.2.1 of Reichl and provide the detailed steps.

Note: This material is presented in section 10.E.2 in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #18

April 3, 2014

Start reading Chapter 9 in Reichl.

  1. Work problem #9.1 in the 3rd edition of Reichl.

Note: This is equivalent to problem #11.1 in the in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #19

April 8, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 9 in Reichl.

  1. Provide the necessary steps to justify Eq. E.14 of your textbook and show how this result is used to prove Eq. 9.41.

Note: The equivalent equations are 11.69 and 11.73 in the in the 2nd edition text.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #20

April 10, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 9 in Reichl.

  1. Derive (check) the equations given on slides 10-12 of the lecture notes for Lecture 21.

PHY 770 -- Assignment #21

April 15, 2014

Continue reading Chapter 9 in Reichl.

  1. Work problem #9.9.

Note: The equivalent problem is 11.10 in the 2nd edition text.

Return to main web page for PHY 770
Last modfied: Monday, 13-Jan-2014 21:53:08 EST