Statistical and Thermal Physics: With Computer Applications

Harvey Gould, Jan Tobochnik0691137447

This textbook carefully develops the main ideas and techniques of statistical and thermal physics and is intended for upper-level undergraduate courses. The authors each have more than thirty years’ experience in teaching, curriculum development, and research in statistical and computational physics.
Statistical and Thermal Physics begins with a qualitative discussion of the relation between the macroscopic and microscopic worlds and incorporates computer simulations throughout the book to provide concrete examples of important conceptual ideas. Unlike many contemporary texts on thermal physics, this book presents thermodynamic reasoning as an independent way of thinking about macroscopic systems. Probability concepts and techniques are introduced, including topics that are useful for understanding how probability and statistics are used. Magnetism and the Ising model are considered in greater depth than in most undergraduate texts, and ideal quantum gases are treated within a uniform framework. Advanced chapters on fluids and critical phenomena are appropriate for motivated undergraduates and beginning graduate students.
– Integrates Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations as well as other numerical techniques throughout the text
– Provides self-contained introductions to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
– Discusses probability concepts and methods in detail
– Contains ideas and methods from contemporary research
– Includes advanced chapters that provide a natural bridge to graduate study
– Features more than 400 problems
– Programs are open source and available in an executable cross-platform format
– Solutions manual (available only to teachers)

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Table of contents :
01 table.pdf……Page 1
Introduction……Page 7
Some qualitative observations……Page 9
Doing work……Page 10
Quality of energy……Page 11
Some simple simulations……Page 12
Measuring the pressure and temperature……Page 20
*The fundamental need for a statistical approach……Page 24
*Time and ensemble averages……Page 26
The ideal gas……Page 27
Importance of simulations……Page 28
Summary……Page 29
Additional Problems……Page 31
Suggestions for Further Reading……Page 32
chap2.pdf……Page 34
chap3.pdf……Page 90
chap4.pdf……Page 146
chap5.pdf……Page 198
The Classical Ideal Gas……Page 238
Classical Systems and the Equipartition Theorem……Page 246
Maxwell Velocity Distribution……Page 248
Occupation Numbers and Bose and Fermi Statistics……Page 251
Distribution Functions of Ideal Bose and Fermi Gases……Page 253
Single Particle Density of States……Page 255
Photons……Page 257
Electrons……Page 258
The Equation of State for a Noninteracting Classical Gas……Page 260
Black Body Radiation……Page 263
Noninteracting Fermi Gas……Page 267
Ground-state properties……Page 268
Low temperature thermodynamic properties……Page 271
Bose Condensation……Page 276
The Heat Capacity of a Crystalline Solid……Page 280
The Einstein model……Page 281
Debye theory……Page 282
Appendix 6A: Low Temperature Expansion……Page 284
Suggestions for Further Reading……Page 294
chap7.pdf……Page 296
chap8.pdf……Page 314
chap9.pdf……Page 358
chap10.pdf……Page 395
SI derived units……Page 405
Approximations……Page 406
Gaussian Integrals……Page 407
Stirling’s formula……Page 408
Constants……Page 409
Fermi integrals……Page 410
Bose integrals……Page 411