PHY 4523 -- Statistical Physics
   Webpage Version of 24 April 2004.


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 hrs),
Tu Th 8th period (15:00 - 15:50 hrs), and by appointment.


Grading Assistant:

Yingxia Wan, Office Hours: Th 13:00-15:00 hrs, Office: NPB 1228, Tel: 2-1668, Email: ywan@phys.ufl.edu.


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).  Available from Oxford University Press.


Link to Complete Syllabus


Link to in vivo Schedule


Link to in vivo Grade Spreadsheet (Excel)


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.
Chapter 5:  2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 22, 23, 26.    Chapter 6:  2, 4, 6, 8, 9.
Chapter 7:  2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 16.                                    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.
NOTE:  Subject to change and tthers to be assigned later.


Quizzes and Solutions:  SMQ1. SMQ2 . SMQ2bisSMQ3. SMQ4. SMQ5 . SMQ6 . SMQ7. SMQ8. 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.


Final Exam: Wednesday, 28 April, 17:30 - 19:30 hrs (i.e. 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, Final Exam Group 28E).
Final "Thermal Physics" formula sheets and "Statistical Physics" formula sheets in *.pdf formats, versions of 24 April 2003.

2003 Stat Mech Final Exam Pages: Q1, Q2, Q3; and Solutions S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9.


Other potentially useful (or interesting) links:

Johannes D. van der Waals, Nobel Lecture 1910,
           where you may read about "the broad outlines of my equation of state and how I arrived at it"
           and find the statement "It is great pleasure for me that an increasing number of younger physicists
           find the inspiration for their work in studies and contemplations of the molecular theory".

Work extracted from a single heat bath?  Do you believe it?
               Check it out:  "Extracting Work from a Single Heat Bath via Vanishing Quantum Coherence" ,
                Science 299 (2003) 862-864.

Debate on "A Fresh Take on Disorder, or Disorderly Science", by A. Cho, Science, News Focus, 23 Aug. 2002, p. 1268
               rages with 3 Letters to the Editor in Science300 (2003) 249-251, with the heading
              "Revisiting Disorder and Tsallis Statistics".

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, Nature415 (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, Nature415 (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. , Science295 (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., Nature416 (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.