- Docente: Loris Ferrari
- Credits: 6
- SSD: FIS/03
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 8025)
Learning outcomes
Elements of statistical thermodynamics: non degenerate systems. Elements of quantum mechanics.
Course contents
Statistical thermodynamics of degnerate systems. Bosons and Fermions. Fermi-Dirac (FD) and Bose-Einstein (BE) statistics. Partition functions and free energies for FD and BE. the chemical potentials. The continuum limit. Difficulties in the bosonic case. Massless bosons and oscillators. Electromagnetic field and photons. Black Body theory and Planck’s formula. Elastic solids in the continuum approximation. Debye theory. Acoustic and optical phonons. Heat capacity of non metallic solids. Massive bosons and BE-condensation. Critical temperature and the condensate’s population. Strongly degenerate fermions. The Fermi level. Distinction between conductors and non conductors. Fermi level and effective electrons in conductors. Sommerfeld expansion. Fermi level and effective electrons in non conductors. Correlated systems. Ising and Heisenberg models. Spontaneous magnetization in the mean field approximation. Gaussian approximation. Critical exponents and universality classes. Outlines of the Renormalization Group Theory. Liquid-vapor transition: its analogies with the Ising model. Band theory. Bloch theorem. Correlation effects on the band formation: Screened potentials and the Mott transition. Outlines on the Hubbard model.
Readings/Bibliography
Toda-Kubo-Saito, "Statistical Physics I". Springer-Verlag.
Brandsen and Joachain, "Physics of Atoms and Molecules", Longman.
Plischke and Bergersen, "Equilibrium Statistical Physics", World Scientific
Assessment methods
Oral examination.
Office hours
See the website of Loris Ferrari