Statistical Physics of Particles

Statistical physics has its origins in attempts to describe the thermal properties of matter in terms of its constituent particles, and has played a fundamental role in the development of quantum mechanics. Based on lectures taught by Professor Kardar at MIT, this textbook introduces the central concepts and tools of statistical physics. It contains a chapter on probability and related issues such as the central limit theorem and information theory, and covers interacting particles, with an extensive description of the van der Waals equation and its derivation by mean field approximation. It also contains an integrated set of problems, with solutions to selected problems at the end of the book and a complete set of solutions is available to lecturers on a password protected website at www.cambridge.org/9780521873420. A companion volume, Statistical Physics of Fields, discusses non-mean field aspects of scaling and critical phenomena, through the perspective of renormalization group.Additional ISBNs: 0521873428, 051128912X, 9780521873420, 9780511289125Statistical Physics of Particles is written by Mehran Kardar and published by Cambridge University Press. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for Statistical Physics of Particles are 9780511287121, 0511287127 and the print ISBNs are 9780521873420, 0521873428.