PHY 4523 -- Statistical Physics

  
Webpage Version of 3 May 2002
  

Instructor:
Mark W. Meisel, Department of Physics, University of Florida
Best Place to Find Me: NPB B133, Tel: 2-9147, Fax:  2-7709
Alternative Place to Find Me: NPB 2358, Tel: 2-8867
Email: meisel@phys.ufl.edu
Office Hours: W F 9th period (16:05 - 16:55) and by appointment.

Teaching Assistant:
Kwangje Woo,  Office:  NPB 1228,  Tel:392-1668,  Email:  woo@phys.ufl.edu
Office Hours:  M W F  13:40 to 14:40 hrs

Meeting Times:  M W F 8th period (15:00 - 15:50 hrs) in NPB 1011

Textbook:  R. Bowley and M. Sanchez, "Introductory Statistical Mechanics (2nd Edition)", (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999).




Suggested Homework: Chapter 1:  3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12.
                                    Chapter 2:  4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 19.
                                   Chapter 3:   6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 20, 21.
                                    Chapter 4:  1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14.
                                   Solutions to Ch. 1-4 are available on-line from UF Library Reserve.
                                    Chapter 5:  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 26.
                                     Solutions to Ch. 5 are available on-line from UF Library Reserve.
                                      Chapter 6:  2, 4, 6, 8, 9.
                                      Chapter 7:  2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 16.
                                        Solutions to be posted in glass case on 12 March, before noon.
                                        Quiz 5 on Friday, March 15, will be focus on Ch. 6 and 7.
                                      Chapter 8:  1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12.
                                       Chapter 9:  1, 3, 4, 5, 9.
                                       Chapter 10:  1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15.
                                        Others to be assigned later.

Quizzes and Solutions:  SMQ1. SMQ2 . SMQ3a and SMQ3b . SMQ4. SMQ5SMQ6.    SMQ7a and SMQ7bSMQ8 SMQ9 .

Mid-term Exams and Solutions: MTE 1 and S1 , S2, S3, S4, S5.
                                                     MTE 2 and S1 , S2 , S3, S4, S5.
                                                      MTE3 and S1 , S2, S3, S4.
Formula Sheet from PHY3062/PHY3513 in postscript or in pdf.
Formula Sheet from PHY 4523 (part 1: Chapters 1 - 5) in postscript or in pdf.

Final Exam: Tuesday, 30 April, 17:30 - 19:30 hrs (Final Exam Group 30E).
                                      
Final 1, Final 2, Final 3, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8.
                                       Formula Sheets: Thermal 1,
Thermal 2, SM1, SM2 , SM3 .

Other potentially useful (or interesting) links:
http://stp.clarku.edu/ is not presently maintained but has some useful information.
No Thaw Flaw in the Third Law!
"Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences", 2nd. edition,
        P.R. Bevington and D.K. Robinson (McGraw-Hill, 1992).
"Quantum Engine Blasts Past High Gear" (what could this be?), see Science 295 (2002) p. 425.
"Is Tsallis Thermodynamics Nonextensive?", E. Vines and A. Planes, Physical Review Letters    88 (2002) 0200601-1.
"Entropy at Work?  A Bacteria Ballad" from Commentator Bill Harley, National Public Radio (NPR), 9 Feb. 2002.
"Taking the Temperature", B. Behringer, Nature 415 (2002) 594-594.
           Simple comments about "temperature" and entropy of granular materials, as motived the the research article:
           "Testing the thermodynamic approach to granular matter with a
                    numerical model of a decisive experiment",
                   H.A. Makse and J. Kurchan, Nature 415 (2002) 614-617.
For a comment on the usefulness of numbering equations, see
           "What's wrong with these equations?" by N. David Mermin, Physics Today , October 1989, p. 9.
                    also reprinted in "Boojums All the Way Through, Communicatin Science in a Prosaic Age",
                    by N. David Mermin (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990).
                 "Great reading!  Great graduation gift idea!  Take it down the Sawannee River!" -- MWM
Life arrived on Earth from an asteroid?  "Thermodyanmically not possible?!" -- MWM
            But consider:
              Archaea bacteria which is:  anaerobic (no O2 ), known to survive up to 350 C and down to -180 C,
                            can tolerate tremendous pressures (found at depths more than 2000 ft. in ocean vents,
                            "eats" iron sulfides and magnetite to oxidize the Fe2+ to generate ATP,
                            known to survive high does of radiation.
                            (Undated notes supplied to MWM from ALP to suggest plausibility for the idea.)
              "Microbial Activity at Gigapascal Pressures", A. Sharma et al., Science 295 (2002) 1514-1516; and
                            the "lay discussion" about this paper "Weight of the World on Microbes' Shoulders",
                            J. Couzin, Science 295 (2002) 1444-1445.
Non-blackbody radiation?
            "Coherent emission of light by thermal sources", J.-J. Greffet et al., Nature 416 (2002) 61-64.
Ultracold Matter, at least from the laser cooling viewpoint:
            see the "Nature Insight" for a collection of articles, in Nature 416 (2002) 205-246.
BEC "Video Games", see http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl
Information Theory and Entropy?  see "Entropy, Information, and Computation",
                                                                J. Machta, Am. J. Phys. 67 (1999) 1074.