Lecture Notes

The lecture notes are from an earlier version of this course, but still correspond to the topics covered in this version.

SES # TOPICS LECTURE NOTES
I. Thermodynamics
L1 Fundamental Definitions, The Zeroth Law, The First Law Lecture Note 1 (PDF)
L2 The Second Law, Carnot Engines and Thermodynamic Temperature, Entropy Lecture Note 2 (PDF)
L3 Approach to Equilibrium and Thermodynamic Potentials, Useful Mathematical Results Lecture Note 3 (PDF)
L4 Stability Conditions, The Third Law Lecture Note 4 (PDF)
II. Probability
L5 General Definitions, One Random Variable, Some Important Probability Distributions Lecture Note 5 (PDF)
L6 Many Random Variables, Sums of Random Variables and the Central Limit Theorem, Rules for Large Numbers, Information, Entropy, and Estimation Lecture Note 6 (PDF)
III. Kinetic Theory of Gases
L7 General Definitions, Liouville’s Theorem Lecture Note 7 (PDF)
L8 The Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon Hierarchy, The Boltzmann Equation Lecture Note 8 (PDF)
L9 The H-Theorem and Irreversibility, Equilibrium Properties Lecture Note 9 (PDF)
L10 Conservation Laws Lecture Note 10 (PDF)
L11 Zeroth Order Hydrodynamics, First Order Hydrodynamics Lecture Note 11 (PDF)
IV. Classical Statistical Mechanics
L12 General Definitions, The Microcanonical Ensemble, Two-Level Systems Lecture Note 12 (PDF)
L13 The Ideal Gas, Mixing Entropy and Gibbs’ Paradox, The Canonical Ensemble Lecture Note 13 (PDF)
L14 Examples, The Gibbs Canonical Ensemble, The Grand Canonical Ensemble Lecture Note 14 (PDF)
V. Interacting Particles
L15 The Cumulant Expansion Lecture Note 15 (PDF)
L16 The Cluster Expansion Lecture Note 16 (PDF)
L17 The Second Virial Coefficient and Van der Waals Equation, Breakdown of the Van der Waals Equation, Mean Field Theory of Condensation Lecture Note 17 (PDF)
L18 Variational Methods, Corresponding States, Critical Point Behavior Lecture Note 18 (PDF)
VI. Quantum Statistical Mechanics
L19 Mean field theory of condensation, Corresponding states, Critical point behavior (from L17 & L18) Lecture Note 19 (PDF)
L20 Dilute Polyatomic Gases, Vibrations of a Solid, Black-body Radiation Lecture Note 20 (PDF)
L21 Quantum Microstates, Quantum Macrostates Lecture Note 21 (PDF)
VII. Ideal Quantum Gases
L22 Hilbert Space of Identical Particles Lecture Note 22 (PDF)
L23 Canonical Formulation, Grand Canonical Formulation Lecture Note 23 (PDF)
L24 The Degenerate Fermi Gas Lecture Note 24 (PDF)
L25 The Degenerate Bose Gas Lecture Note 25 (PDF)
L26 Superfluid He4 Lecture Note 26 (PDF)

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Fall 2013
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Lecture Notes