Methods of Statistical Physics

A graduate-level textbook on thermal physics covering classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and its applications.

Tomoyasu Tanaka (Author)

9780521589581, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 March 2002

312 pages, 48 b/w illus. 11 tables
24.4 x 17 x 1.7 cm, 0.5 kg

'Each chapter in the book ends with challenging exercises for the student. The mathematics are set out clearly with a type that is clear, in a font that is easily read.' Contemporary Physics

This graduate-level textbook on thermal physics covers classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and its applications. It describes theoretical methods to calculate thermodynamic properties, such as the equation of state, specific heat, Helmholtz free energy, magnetic susceptibility and phase transitions of macroscopic systems. In addition to the more standard material covered, this book also describes powerful techniques, which are not found elsewhere, to determine the correlation effects on which the thermodynamic properties are based. Particular emphasis is given to the cluster variation method and a novel formulation is developed for its expression in terms of correlation functions. Although a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics is required, the mathematical formulations are accessible and entirely self-contained. The book will therefore constitute an ideal companion text for graduate students studying courses on the theory of complex analysis, classical mechanics, classical electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics.

1. Laws of thermodynamics
2. Thermodynamic relations
3. The ensemble theory
4. System Hamiltonians
5. The density matrix
6. The cluster variation method
7. Infinite series representations of correlation functions
8. The extended mean-field approximation
9. The exact Ising lattice identities
10. Propagation of short range order
11. Phase transition of the two-dimensional Ising model
Appendix 1. The gamma function
Appendix 2. The critical exponent in the tetrahedron approximation
Appendix 3. Programming organization of the cluster variation method
Appendix 4. A unitary transformation applied to the Hubbard Hamiltonian
Appendix 5. Exact Ising identities on the diamond lattice
References
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Condensed matter physics [liquid state & solid state physics PHFC], Physics [PH]