Intended for beginning graduate students, this text provides not only a complete survey of thermodynamics and statistical physics, but also an enormous number of worked examples and problems to show students clearly how to apply the abstract principles to realistic problems.

Klappentext

From the reviews: "This book excels by its variety of modern examples in solid state physics, magnetism, elementary particle physics [...] I can recommend it strongly as a valuable source, especially to those who are teaching basic statistical physics at our universities." Physicalia

Inhalt

Foreword; Preface; I. Thermodynamics 1. Equilibrium and State Quantities; 2. The Laws of Thermodynamics; 3. Phase Transitions and Chemical Reactions; 4. Thermodynamic Potentials II. Statistical Mechanics 5. Number of Microstates and Entropy; 6. Ensemble Theory and the Microcanonical Ensemble; 7. The Canonical Ensemble; 8. Application of Boltzmann Statistics; 9. The Macrocanonical Ensemble III. Quantum Statistics 10. Density Operators; 11. The Symmetry Character of Many-Particle Wavefunctions; 12. Grand Canonical Description of Ideal Quantum Systems; 13. The Ideal Bose Gas; 14. Ideal Fermi Gas; 15. Applications of Relativistic Bose and Fermi Gases IV. Real Gases and Phase Transitions 16. Real Gases; 17. Classification of Phase Transitions; 18. The Models of Ising and Heisenberg; Index