Syllabus
Textbook: Kittel and Kroemer, Thermal Physics, 2nd ed., Freeman (1997)
Part I: Thermodynamics
1. Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics
- temperature
- heat
2. The First Law of Thermodynamics
- internal energy
3. The Second Law of thermodynamics
- heat engine
- Carnot cycle
- Carnot's theorem
- entropy
- reversible and irreversible change of state,
- Maxwell's demon
4. Thermodynamic Functions
- the central equation of thermodynamics
- energy, enthalpy
- Helmholtz free energy
- Gibbs free energy
- the Clausius-Clapeyron equation
- the Joul-Thomson effect
Part II: Statistical Mechanics
5. General Treatment of Localized Assembly
- a specific example
- counting states
- a binary model system
- Lagrange's method of undetermined multipliers
- two assemblies that can share energy
6. Statistical Interpretation of Entropy
- the Boltzmann factor
- the partition function
7. Idea Gas: a First Look
- states of a particle in a box
- partition function for N particles in a box
- entropy of mixing
8. Blackbody Radiation
- photons
- Planck distribution function
9. Phonons in Solids: Debye Theory
10. Chemical Potential
- diffusive equilibrium
- chemical work
- internal and total chemical potential
- batteries
11. Gibbs Factor and Gibbs Sum
12. Ideal Gas: a Second Look
- Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein, and Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution functions
- internal degrees of freedom
13. Fermi Gases
- density of states
- electrons in metals
14. Bose Gases
- Bose-Einstein condensation