PHY 6536
Statistical Mechanics
In this course we will study "statistical physics.'' This subject is a link between the microscopic world of one or two particles and the macroscopic world of Avogadro's number of little particles, all the same. In the micro-world, energy is conserved; the equations are exact, reversible, and can be solved at any level of detail required. In the macro-world the details are lost in some thermodynamic limit; we work with very general relationships among macroscopic properties of systems; and entropy always increases.
Announcements:
The latest announcements will be here
Time and place: MWF 3th
(9.35-10.25 AM) NPB 1101
Text R.K. Pathria, Paul D.
Beale Statistical Mechanics (Third edition, 2011)
Additional text: J.P. Sethna, Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters and Complexity (Oxford University Press, 2006).
Introductory text: Roger Bowley, Mariana Sanchez, Introductory Statistical Mechanics
Instructor: Sergei Obukhov
email: sergei at phys.ufl.edu
Phone: 392-8752
Office: 2164 NPB
Grader: Muhammad
Imran <muhammadimran
at ufl.edu>
Phone 352.846.3117
Office: 2151 NPB
lecture notes:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4239962/gsm.pdf
Office hours: 2.00 pm-3.00 pm MW
We will have homework
approximately every week, due on Mondays, a midterm on Monday,
February 27, and a final exam on April 24.
Methods
by
which
students
will
be evaluated and their grade determined:
Grades
will
be
based
on
one midterm exam (25%), one final (35%) and homework (40%).
There will be approximately 10 homework assignments.
Other course notes:
All students are required to
abide by the Academic
Honesty Guidelines of
the University of Florida.
Attendance will not be monitored; however, exam questions will come from topics discussed in class.