Karen Kheruntsyan

Teaching

I teach and coordinate the third year Physics course PHYS3020/7021 - Statistical Mechanics. This webpage contains the tentative schedule of lectures and suggested readings, which I regularly update during the semester as we make progress through the course.

balck-body radiation

PHYS3020/7021 - Statistical Mechanics

1 Course Timetable and Reading Material for 2011

1 Course Timetable and Reading Material for 2011

1.1 Timetable

1.1 Timetable

Tuesdays: Lecture, 11:00-11:50am, Bld. 67, Rm. 342
Wednesdays: Lecture, 12:00-12:50pm, Bld. 1, Rm. E301
Thursdays: Tutorial, 11:00-11:50am, Bld. 32, Rm. 214

Labs: Mondays and Tuesdays, 2:00-4:50pm, Bld. 7, Rm. 301
4 labs to choose from, 2 labs must be completed over the course of the semester (2 x 2 afternoons). Labs start with a compulsory introductory sessions on Tuesday in Week 2; the actual lab experiments will start from Week 3.

Consultation:
Tuesdays 12:00-13:00
Wednesdays 13:00-14:00
Office: Rm. 402, Bld. 6 (Physics Annexe).

1.2 Tentative schedule (subject to change)

1.2 Tentative schedule (subject to change)

Readings are from from the following main texts:
1. Daniel V. Schroeder, An introduction to thermal physics [Schroeder].
2. Charles Kittel and Herbert Kroemer, Thermal Physics [Kittel].

Advanced texts for quantum geeks:
1. Kerson Huang, Statistical Mechanics (Wiley, 1963).
2. L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshits, Quantum mechanics, 3rd edition (Pegamon, 1980) [LL-QM].
3. L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshits, Statistical Physics, 3rd edition (Pegamon, 1980).

Week 1
Tue	26 Jul	Lecture 1: Introduction; An overview of Thermal Physics. [Schroeder, pp. 1-20]
Wed	27 Jul	L2: Multiplicity; States of model binary systems. [Schroeder, pp. 49-66, 68-74] or [Kittel, pp. 5-26] () Extra-curriculum reading
Thu	28 Jul	Problem Set 1.

Week 2
Tue	2 Aug	L3: Micro-canonical ensemble; Fundamental assumption. [Schroeder, pp. 56-59, 74-94] or [Kittel, pp. 29-45]
Wed	3 Aug	L4: Entropy; Temperature. [Schroeder, pp. 74-94] or [Kittel, pp. 29-45]
Thu	4 Aug	Problem Set 2.

Week 3
Tue	9 Aug	L5: Laws of thermodynamics. [Kittel, pp. 45-52] or [Schroeder 17-20, 74-94]
Wed	10 Aug	Revision: Weeks 1-3; L6: Canonical ensemble; Boltzmann Factor; Partition Function. [Schroeder, pp. 220-229] or [Kittel, pp. 58-64].
Thu	11 Aug	Problem Set 3.

Week 4
Tue	16 Aug	L7: Canonical ensemble (cont.); Free energy. [Schroeder, pp. 108-114, 149-152, 156-164] or [Kittel, pp. 64-72]
Wed	17 Aug	Public holiday: Exhibition Day
Thu	18 Aug	Problem Set 4.

Week 5
Tue	23 Aug	L7: Canonical ensemble (cont.); Free energy. [Schroeder, pp. 108-114, 149-152, 156-164] or [Kittel, pp. 64-72]
Wed	24 Aug	L8: Ideal gas: a first look; Gibbs Paradox; Equipartition Theorem. [Schroeder, pp. 229-255] or [Kittel, pp. 72-81]
Thu	25 Aug	Revision: Problem Sets 1 - 4.

Week 6
Tue	30 Aug	L8 (cont.): Ideal gas: a first look; Gibbs Paradox; Equipartition Theorem. [Schroeder, pp. 229-255] or [Kittel, pp. 72-81]
Wed	31 Aug	Revision.
Thu	1 Sep	Mid Semester Test 1

Week 7
Tue	6 Sep	L9: Grand-canonical ensemble; Chemical potential. [Schroeder, pp. 115-121, 257-261] or [Kittel, pp. 117-122, 131-140]
Wed	7 Sep	L10: Identity of particles in Quantum Mechanics; Bosons and Fermions; Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions. [Schroeder, pp. 262-271,379-380] or [Kittel, pp. 151-161]
Thu	8 Sep	Problem Set 5

Week 8
Tue	13 Sep	L11: Quantum and classical regimes of an ideal gas; Grand canonical description of the ideal gas. [Schroeder, pp. 262-271,379-380] and [Kittel, pp. 160-166]
Wed	14 Sep	L12: Spin multiplicity; Quantum states and quantum density of states. [Schroeder, pp. 262-271,279-282] or [Kittel, pp. 181-188].
Thu	15 Sep	Problem Set 6.

Week 9
Tue	20 Sep	L13: Fermi gases. [Schroeder, pp.271-282] or [Kittel, pp. 183-189]
Wed	21 Sep	L14: Finite temperature Fermi gases. [Schroeder, pp.282-288] or [Kittel, pp. 189-199]
Thu	22 Sep	Problem Set 7.

MID SEMESTER BREAK

Week 10
Tue	4 Oct	L15: Bose gases. [Schroeder, pp.315-326] or [Kittel, pp. 199-206]
Wed	5 Oct	L16: Finite temperature Bose gases. [Schroeder, pp.315-326] or [Kitel, pp. 202-210]
Thu	6 Oct	Problem Set 8.

Week 11
Tue	11 Oct	Students Evaluation of Teaching (15 min). L17: Planck distribution; Black-body radiation. [Schroeder, pp.288-292] or [Kittel, pp. 89-94]
Wed	12 Oct	L18: Black-body radiation (cont.). [Schroeder, pp. 292-306] or [Kittel, pp. 94-98]
Thu	13 Oct	Problem Set 9.

Week 12
Tue	18 Oct	Revision.
Wed	19 Oct	Mid Semester Test 2
Thu	20 Oct	Feedback on Mid Semester Test 2.

Week 13
Tue	25 Oct	L19: Debye model of a solid. [Schroeder, pp. 307-314] and [Kittel, pp. 102-110]
Wed	26 Oct	L20: The Ising model of a ferromagnet. [Schroeder, pp. 339-346]
Thu	27 Oct	Problem Set 10, Revision.

5 Nov - 19 Nov		Examination period