WT23/24: Integrated Course II: Statistical and Solid State Physics

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Evers

Tutors

Adrian Seith (adrian.seith(AT)ur.de)

Johannes Dieplinger (johannes.dieplinger(AT)ur.de)

Teaching units

• The first lecture will be taught on 16.10.2023
• The time of the exercise will be negotiated in the first lecture, it will start in the first week

Lecture (4 SWS)

• Lectures take place Mondays 10.00 -12.00 c.t. in 9.2.01 and Fridays 10.00 - 12.00 c.t. in 9.1.10

Exercise (2 SWS)

• The time will be negotiated in the first exercise, the room will be 5.1.34B (Evers seminar room)
• We provide one excersice sheet per week. They will be distributed via GRIPS  and discussed the week after.
• There is an exercise sheet No. 0 that will be given a week before the start of the semester. 
• We highly suggest solving the exercises in advance.
• At the beginning of each exercise session, you check in the list which problems you are prepared to present on the blackboard.
  Based on that list, one student will be randomly selected to present their solution.
• In order to participate in the final exam, you have to check at least 50% of the total points over the course of the semester.
• Additional information will be communicated via GRIPS

Exam

• to be announced

Syllabus

Content

1. Introduction
2. Basic concepts of statistics
3. Physical input into statistical theory
4. Microcanonical ensemble
5. Canonical ensemble
6. Grand Canonical ensembles
7. Thermodynamic averages
8. Entropy and probability
9. Thermodynamic state variables
10. Thermal fluctuations
11. The first and second law of thermodynamics
12. Thermodynamic relations
13. Inhomogeneous systems
14. Interlude: Systems of identical particles
15. Quantum gases: fermions
16. Quantum gases: bosons
17. Spin systems and magnetic phase transitions
18. Virial expansion for diluted systems
19. Liquid-vapor phase transition in van-der-Waals gases
20. Phase transitions and critical phenomena
21. Non-equilibrium dynamics: Boltzmann equation
22. Selected Themes of Condensed Matter Theory

Literature

• Statistische Theorie der Wärme: Gleichgewichtsphänomene, W. Brenig, Springer (1992).
• Statistische Mechanik, F. Schwabl, Springer (2006).
• Statistische Physik: Lehrbuch zur Theoretischen Physik IV, T. Fliessbach (2018).
• Grundkurs Theoretische Physik 6: Statistische Physik, W. Nolting (2013).

Background reading

• Fundamentals of statistical and thermal physics, F. Reif, Mc-Graw Hill (1965).
• Statistical Physics,
  L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Pergamon Press (1976).