PH 216: Statistical Physics (2023) Spring
Prof. Dibyendu Das

Prerequisite

None

Course Content

(1) Basics of probability theory, moments, cumulants and Central limit theorem. (2) Thermodynamic equilibrium and stability, response functions and thermodynamic potentials. (3) Isolated system. Entropy and phase space volume. Micro-canonical ensemble. Ideal gas. (4) System and reservoirs. Canonical, Gibbs, and Grand Canonical ensembles. Partition function and thermodynamic connections. (5) Quantum Statistics and mixed states. Density matrix in position basis for single particle and N non-interacting Fermions and Bosons. (6) Fermi and Bose gases at High temperatures. (7) Fermi and Bose gases at low temperature, pressure, specific heat, and applications.

Books

1) Statistical Physics of particles, by Mehran Kardar (Cambridge University Press, 2007).3022402) Statistical Mechanics, by R. K. Pathria (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996).3022403) Statistical Mechanics, by Kerson Huang (John Wiley & sons, 1987).

Review by Shanttanu Oberoi

Lectures

The lectures were very good and explainable; Prof. had already shared all the lecture notes on moodle, which were pretty similar to the things Prof. did in the class. You won't need to go to the lectures so far away, as the notes were self-explanatory for me. Try understanding notes on your own; if you don't understand them well, then I would suggest you attend every lecture; don't be lazy like me. I would also recommend viewing Kardar lectures on the mitocw

Assignments, Exams and Grading

Quiz1- 15% Mid-sem- 30% Quiz2- 10% End-sem- 45% All the exam questions were like that. You won't find any except 1-2 in any book. The professor handcrafted all the questions by himself. If you had practiced tutorials carefully, the questions wouldn't be too hard for you, the solutions of the questions sometimes become too lengthy and don't match any perfect value you were expecting or heard of, and 80% of the time your solution would be right in that case as many times you get the very messy result. Also don't target doing all the questions in the exam as time is very less comparable to the hardness of the question, try doing those questions first which you think you would be able to write neat and tidy solution

Tips

Soft Prereq- Complex Analysis, Differential Equations, Probability, Basic Quantum Mechanics You should have a strong grip on all the prerequisites as they are the foundations of this course. If your Prof. is Dibyendu Das, then there won't be any benefit of solving previous years' questions as they are completely irrelevant; instead, focus more on the tutorials. I hope you will love this course as it gives a mathematical picture of the world around mainly all the thermodynamic processes happening around us