Statistical Thermodynamics CHY 673/PHY512 (3cr)

(Instructor: J. C. Rasaiah)

Course Description.This course is offered to graduate students in chemistry, physics, biochemistry and chemical engineering.

The lectures will cover the following topics:

  1. Thermodynamics of fluids and magnetic systems. Critical phenomena and exponents. Thermodynamics of surfaces.

  2. The Ergodic Theorem. The Microcanonical, Canonical and Grand Canonical Ensembles. Fluctuations.

  3. Applications to Non-interacting (ideal) Systems. Photons and Phonons. Einstein and Fermi-Dirac Statistics. The Langmuir Adsorption Isotherm. The Classical limit and Ideal Gases. Chemical Equilibria and Ideal Gases. Ideal Dipoles in an Electric Field.

  4. Non-ideal fluids. The Configurational Partition Function. Conformal Potentials and the Law of Corresponding States. Distribution Functions g(r). Integral Equation approximations for g(r). Thermodynamic Perturbation Theory.

  5. Cooperative phenomena. The Ising model. The Lattice Gas model and Binary alloys. Mean Field Theories. Landau-Ginsburg Theory. High and Low Temperature Expansions. Widom and Kadanoff Scaling. Intoduction to Renormalization group.

  6. Time dependent phenomena. The Liouville Equation. Time Correlation functions and Onsager's Regression Hypothesis. The Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem and Linear Response Theory. Friction and the Langevin Equation. Chemical Reaction rates-Transition State Theory and Kramers' Theory.

  7. Computer simulation of Simple Fluids and Magnetic systems. Introduction to Monte Carlo and Molecular dynamics.(time permitting)

Prerequisites: Undergraduate P.Chem or Modern Physics or equivalent

Texts:

  1. Statistical Mechanics — Lecture notes J. C. Rasaiah

  2. Statistical Mechanics of Phase Transitions, J. M.Yeomans (Oxford)

  3. Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics; David Chandler, (Oxford).

References:
  1. Statistical Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory; Charles E. Hecht (Dover)

  2. An Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics; T. L. Hill (Dover)

  3. Statistical Mechanics; Donald McQuarrie (Harper and Row)

  4. A Course in Statistical Mechanics by H. L. Friedman (Prentice Hall)

  5. Statistical Mechanics; Kerson Huang, (John Wiley)

  6. Statistical Physics I ⅈ M. Toda, R. Kubo, N. Saito and N. Hashitsume. (Springer Verlag)

  7. Statistical Thermodynamics for Chemists and Biochemists; A. Ben Naim (Plenum)

  8. Statistical mechanics of Strongly Interacting Systems: Encyclopedia of Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry; J. C. Rasaiah

  9. Lectures in Phase Transitions and Renormalization Group; N. Goldenfield (Adison- Wesley)