PHYS 505: Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics [Sping 2009]
Instructor: Dr. V. M. Kenkre
E-mail: "kenkre at unm edu"
Office: room 35 P&A
Office hours: By appointment.
TA: Ziya Kalay
E-mail: "ziya at unm edu"
Office: room 22 P&A
Office hours: Tue, Fri 14:00-15:00. If this does not work, just drop by or send an e-mail.
Course Outline
Books There is no Text Book for this course. I have kept a few books on reserve in the main office of our Department. You can check them out for short periods of time by talking to Jay or Daniel in the front office. These books are
- Statistical Physics - Wannier
- Statistical Mechanics - Pathria
- Statistical Mechanics, Kinetic Theory, and Stochastic Processes - Heer
- An Introduction to Statistical Mechanics- Phillippe Dennery
- Elements of Statistical Mechanics - D ter Haar
- The Principles of Statistical Mechanics - Tolman
- Statistical Mechanics - Huang
Additionally two books which are very comprehensive have been kept on reserve in the Centennial library. You can borrow them for 2 hours at a time. They are:
- A modern course in statistical mechanics / Linda Reichl , QC174.8 R44
- Equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics / Radu Balescu, QC174.8 B34 1975
Additionally, of interest, might be
- Nonequilibrium Stat Mech by Zwanzig, Oxford 2001,
- The Langevin Equation by Coffey et al, World, 2003,
- The Fokker-Planck Equation by Risken, Springer,
- Stoch Proc in Phys and Chem by van Kampen,
- Selected Papers in Noise, ed. Wax, Dover
- Foundation of Stat Mech Series, North-Holland
- Stat Mech and Stat Methods ed. Landman, Plenum
- Statistical Phys I and II by Kubo et al., Springer
- Exciton Dynamics in Molecular Crystals and Aggregates by Kenkre and Reineker
- Modern Challenges in Stat Mech, ed. Kenkre and Lindenberg
as well as a book by McQuarry and one by Mazenko. Relevant portions in these books may occasionally be made available to you.
Your grade in this course will be decided by your performance without reference to that of the rest of the class.
The credit distribution is as follows.
1. Lecture notes for the week, that you are to submit electronically every week before 4 pm on Saturday to "ziya at unm edu" with copy to "kenkre at unm edu", will count 10%. This is largely a freebie so do not neglect to gain as much of the 10% as you can. If you are using LaTex, please submit your tex file too.
2. Three midterminal tests will count a total of 50%. They may or may not be in-class closed-book but at least one of them will be of that form. The two best test performances will be counted.
3. Homeworks, consisting approximately of 2 to 4 problems a week, to be given in class with a submission deadline a week from the day they are given (to be submitted at class time) will count 25%.
4. A term paper on a project to be submitted towards the end of the semester, deadline to be announced later, will count 15%. Topics will be discussed (different for each individual) a few weeks from now (now = end of january).
MIDTERM EXAMS:
Midterm I - February 25th Wednesday
Midterm II - March 30th Monday - Postponed to April 1st Wednesday
Midterm III - April 29th Wednesday
NOTICE THERE IS NO FINAL.
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Roughly, the topics to be discussed in the course will consist of:
I. Nature of Statistical Physics
II. Mesoscopics to Macroscopics
III. Microscopics to Mesoscopics
IV. Equilibrium Practice and Cooperative Phenomena
V. Stochastics and Probability
VI. Miscellaneous.
A more detailed outline will be available to you shortly.