Zusammenfassung This graduate-level textbook on thermal physics covers classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and its applications. The mathematical formulations are accessible and entirely self-contained. It is therefore the ideal companion text for graduate students studying courses on complex analysis, classical mechanics, classical electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics.

Klappentext

A graduate-level textbook on thermal physics covering classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and its applications.

Inhalt

1. Laws of thermodynamics; 2. Thermodynamic relations; 3. The ensemble theory; 4. System Hamiltonians; 5. The density matrix; 6. The cluster variation method; 7. Infinite series representations of correlation functions; 8. The extended mean-field approximation; 9. The exact Ising lattice identities; 10. Propagation of short range order; 11. Phase transition of the two-dimensional Ising model; Appendix 1. The gamma function; Appendix 2. The critical exponent in the tetrahedron approximation; Appendix 3. Programming organization of the cluster variation method; Appendix 4. A unitary transformation applied to the Hubbard Hamiltonian; Appendix 5. Exact Ising identities on the diamond lattice; References; Subject index.