Course details and how to use these notes

These lecture notes are intended for students studying PC235 Thermal and Statistical Physics. They are not a substitute for lectures, nor for text books, but are intended to help understand the most important ideas.

The following notes should help you understand the lay-out of these pages and use them more effectively.

Main pages have the same pale yellow background as this one.

$\mbox{\colorbox[rgb]{0.6,1,0.6}{\rule[-5mm]{0mm}{10mm} \parbox{21cm}{ Pages with green backgrounds contain derivations and details.\hfill}}}$

$\mbox{\large\colorbox{yellow}{\rule[-3mm]{0mm}{10mm} \ $\displaystyle \hbox{Important equations are displayed in yellow boxes.}$ }}$

But note that not every equation is universally true, so be sure to understand the context.

The text has lots of hypertext links. Some link back to previous sections to remind you of results and definitions which are about to be used; others link to examples or help with maths, and still others link to details of derivations. Don't over-use these links, especially of the first kind, or you will easily lose the thread of the argument. It is good practice to read a section through before exploring any of the links, and then ask yourself what you hope to find before exploring a link. That said, don't skip the examples! (The referenced material will generally be found at the top of the linked screen, unless it is close to the bottom of the page. Use the ``Back'' button to return to the original page.)

Lines which are too long are difficult to read, so set the width of your browser to just a little more than that of an A4 page, so that the green box above fills the page. The equation size has been designed to go with a 14 pt font, so that the following $S=k_{\scriptscriptstyle B}\ln\Omega$ doesn't look over- or undersized.

Other sources

The recommended texts for the course are
Mandl, F. Statistical Physics 2nd edition (Wiley) (Available as an ebook)
Bowley, R. and Sanchez, M. Introductory Statistical Mechanics (Oxford)

For the thermal section of the course, there is also
Adkins, C. J. Equilibrium Thermodynamics 2nd edition (McGraw Hill)
Zemansky, M. W. and Dittman, R. H. Heat and Thermodynamics 7th edition (McGraw Hill)

and for the statistical sections,
Kittel, C. and Kroemer, H. Thermal Physics 2nd Edition (Freeman)

The notes of the previous course lecturer, Prof Galla, are available on Blackboard.

Here are some links to external sites on statistical thermodynamics. (I'll check them occasionally, but I apologise in advance for broken links!)

An almost entirely non-mathematical introduction to the subject by T. W. Leland is here. If you find the current site lacking in words, you might like it. Note that ``correct'' on the penultimate line of the last page should read incorrect!

Various other UK universities run courses like this and have material available on the web.

At Leeds it's a third year course, PHYS 3370. The main difference from ours is that they tackle isolated systems with fixed energy directly, via Lagrange multipliers, rather than indirectly via systems in contact with a heat bath (see remarks at the start of the section Statistical Physics of Non-isolated Systems). With that proviso, though, it could be useful. Note they use ``localised systems'' to mean those, like the paramagnet, with distinguishable particles, and ``non-localised systems'' to mean those, like the ideal gas, with indistinguishable particles.

Edinburgh split the course in two, and the thermodynamics notes of Professor Ackland look very useful and about the right level. Note he uses U for the internal energy.

An interesting ``timeline'' history of ideas in statistical physics can be found here, courtesy of Jeff Biggus, formerly of the University of Colorado, USA

Disclaimer

External users are welcome to browse these notes, and I'd be happy to hear your comments. However please be aware that these are in no way a substitute for a textbook (the closest, and the one which I have used heavily in preparing the course, is Mandl), and many subtleties are glossed over or totally ignored!

There are bound to be misprints in these pages, and small rewards are available to Manchester students who point them out! Click here to mail me.