Graduate Statistical Physics 1 (PHYS*7040)

Code and section: PHYS*7040*01

Term: Fall 2021

Instructor: Dmitry Pushin

Details

Instructor

Dmitry Pushin
dmitry.pushin@uwaterloo.ca
Office hours: Tentatively Mondays 2:30 pm - 4 pm (Toronto time)

Evaluation

Assessment Weight
Homework 30%
Midterm 30%
Final 40%

Homework: every 2 weeks (roughly).

Course Topics

  • Thermodynamics: Thermal equilibrium, the laws of thermodynamics.
  • Probability Theory: Probability densities; central limit theorem; laws of large numbers.
  • Kinetic Theory: Phase space densities; Liouville's theorem; the Boltzmann equation.
  • Classical Statistical Mechanics: Microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical ensembles.
  • Interacting Systems: Virial and cluster expansions; van der Waals theory.
  • Quantum Statistical Mechanics: Quantization effects in molecular gases; phonons, photons; density matrix formulation.
  • Identical Particles

Course Resources

Texts

  1. M. Kardar, Statistical Physics of Particles.
  2. K. Huang, Statistical Mechanics.
  3. L.D. Landau & E.M. Lifshitz, Statistical Physics.

Piazza

This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. If you have any problems or feedback for the developers, email team@piazza.com.