Statistical Physics (Student Physics Series)

Statistical physics is not a difficult subject, and I trust that this will not be found a difficult book. It contains much that a number of generations of Lancaster students have studied with me, as part of their physics honours degree work. The lecture course was of twenty hours duration, and I have added comparatively little to the lecture syllabus. A pre­ requisite is that the reader should have a working knowledge of basic thermal physics (i.e. the laws of thermodynamics and their application to simple substances). The book Thermal Physics by Colin Finn in this series forms an ideal introduc­ tion. Statistical physics has a thousand and one different ways of approaching the same basic results. I have chosen a rather down-to-earth and unsophisticated approach, without I hope totally obscuring the considerable interest of the fun­ damentals. This enables applications to be introduced at an early stage in the book. As a low-temperature physicist, I have always found a particular interest in statistical physics, and especially in how the absolute zero is approached. I should not, therefore, apologize for the low-temperature bias in the topics which I have selected from the many possibilities. Front Matter....Pages i-x Basic ideas....Pages 1-15 Distinguishable particles....Pages 16-29 Two examples....Pages 30-51 Gases: The density of states....Pages 52-61 Gases: The distributions....Pages 62-75 Maxwell-Boltzmann gases....Pages 76-86 Diatomic gases....Pages 87-98 Fermi-Dirac gases....Pages 99-114 Bose-Einstein gases....Pages 115-131 Entropy in other situations....Pages 132-140 Phase transitions....Pages 141-154 Two new ideas....Pages 155-165 Back Matter....Pages 166-186 A.m. Guénault. Includes Index.