IIT Gandhinagar, India

PH 507: Statistical Mechanics, Semester II, 2016-2017

Assignment

February 7, 2017

Guidelines:

Submit the answer sheets before mid-semester exam (19th Feb).

Show all the necessary steps clearly and concisely.

Box/encircle your final answer.

You may be asked to turn up for solving some of these question on board.

Questions
P
1. Using the definition of entropy S = KB r pr ln(pr )
P
(a) P
Determine the probabilities
P p r that maximize S under the constraints r pr = 1, U =
r pr r and N = r pr Nr where r and Nr represents the energy energy and the number
of particles in the rth state of the system respectively.
(b) Show that the same probabilities are obtained by minimizing the correct thermodynamic
potential for a system in contact with a thermal and particle reservoir.

2. Evaluate the partition function and the major thermodynamic properties of an ideal gas
consisting of N1 molecules of mass m1 and N2 molecules of mass m2 , confined to a space
of volume V at temperature T . Assume that the molecules of a given kind are mutually
indistinguishable, while those of one kind are distinguishable from those of the other kind.
Compare your results with the ones pertaining to an ideal gas consisting of . N = N1 + N2
molecules, all of one kind, of mass m, such that mN = m1 N1 + m2 N2 .

3. Consider three types of systems form three different types of oscillators Classical Harmonic
Oscillator (CHO), Quantum Harmonic Oscillator (QHO) and Plancks Oscillator (PO) and
they are subjected to three different types of Hamiltonian (for one oscillator) which are given
below:

1
 p2 1
CHO: H(q, p) = + m 2 q 2
2m 2
1 (1)
QHO: H(n) = (n + ) h
2
PO: H(n) = nh

(a) Calculate energy E and heat capacity C, as functions of temperature T , and N for each
individual type of oscillator, where N specify the numbers of oscillators of a specified
system. Plot <E>
h

versus KhBT for three different types oscillator and compare them at
high, low temperature respectively, where < E > is mean energy of an oscillator.
(b) Find the probability pk of a single oscillator is in k th level i. e. a single CHO at particular
(p, q), a single QHO at k th quantum level and a single PO at k th Planck level.

4. Evaluate the canonical partition function and the major thermodynamic properties of a gas
of N non-interacting particles in a n-dimensional box with volume V , with a energy of each
particle is defined as

H(p) = |~p|s , s = 1, 2, 3, ..., (2)

5. A classical ideal gas of N particles confined in box with N0 absorbing sites and fixed volume
V . Each of these sites can absorb at most two particles, the energy of each absorbed particles
being . The total number of particles N is greater than 2N0 . Use the grand canonical
partition ensemble to obtain the equation of state of the gas in the presence of the absorbing
walls and to find the average number of absorbed particles in the limit T 0 and T .
6. Suppose a gas of photons undergo Bose-Einstein condensation obeying the circumstances
that there is no photon absorption or emission i.e. the total number of photos is conserved.
Calculate the critical photon density nc and critical temperature Tc .
7. Suppose a gas of N fermions in three dimensional volume obeying thermodynamic limit.
(a) Obtain the relationship between the grand potential and the energy E of the gas.
Derive the state equation of the gas.
(b) Calculate the chemical potential (called Fermi level F ) and the internal energy of an
ideal gas of fermions of spin s = 1/2, at T = 0. Compare with the classical case.
(c) Calculate the chemical potential and the internal energy of an ideal gas of fermions
of spin s = 1/2, at the lowest order in T , in the case of low but finite temperature.
(d) Calculate the specific heat, the entropy, the free energy and the pressure of the gas at
low temperature.
(e) Calculate the pressure and the specific heat in the high temperature limit.
8. Suppose the probability distribution of molecular speeds in a gas in thermal equilibrium in
three dimensional volume is defined as

mv2
2
f (~v )d3~v e B T
d3~v , (3)

2
where, B is Boltzmann constant and T is temperature of the gas.

(a) Normalize the distribution function.

1
(b) Show that < v >< v
>= 4 .