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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
Prof. S. Teitel: stte@pas.rochester.edu ---- Spring 2021

Videos

The links below take you to the pre-recorded video lectures for the different topic units of the course. In order to view a video, you must be logged in to the University's Blackboard system using you UR NetID. You may need to turn your volume up when you listen to these videos.

Warning! Since these pre-recorded video lectures are being delivered without a live audience to keep me honest, be aware that there may be occasional slips of the tounge or typos. If you think something you see in a lecture is not quite correct, please doublecheck against the posted course Notes. If something still confuses you, please contact Prof. Teitel, and refer to the time mark within the video where you think something is wrong.

• Welcome Video

• Unit 1 - Classical Thermodynamics [8 hr]
  • Video 1-1 [71 min] - Postulates and Variables of Classical Thermodynamics
    
  • Video 1-2 [70 min] - Conditions for Equilibrium, Concavity of the Entropy
    
  • Video 1-3 [77 min] - The Gibbs-Duhem Relation, Entropy of the Ideal Gas, Energy Minimum Principle
    
  • Video 1-4 [38 min] - Legendre Transformations
    
  • Video 1-5 [34 min] - Free Energies
    
  • Video 1-6 [36 min] - Reservoirs and the Extremum Principles for Free Energy
    
  • Video 1-7 [11 min] - The Maxwell Relations
    
  • Video 1-8 [55 min] - Response Functions
    
  • Video 1-9 [50 min] - Stability and Response Functions
    
  • Video 1-10 [39 min] - Heat Engines
    

• Unit 2 - Classical Ensembles [13 hr]
  • Video 2-1 [31 min] - Kinetic Theory of the Ideal Gas and the Maxwell Velocity Distribution
    
  • Video 2-2 [37 min] - The Ergodic Hypothesis -- Time vs Ensemble Averages
    
  • Video 2-3 [28 min] - Liouville's Theorem
    
  • Video 2-4 [50 min] - The Microcannonical Ensemble and Entropy
    
  • Video 2-5 [24 min] - Entropy of the Ideal Gas in the Microcanonical Ensemble
    
  • Video 2-6 [33 min] - Entropy of Mixing and the Gibbs Paradox
    
  • Video 2-7 [49 min] - Indistinguishable Particles
    
  • Video 2-8 [54 min] - The Canonical Ensemble
    
  • Video 2-9 [45 min] - Equivalence of the Microcanonical and Canonical Ensembles
    
  • Video 2-10 [47 min] - Average Energy Vs Most Probably Energy; Stirling's Formula
    
  • Video 2-11 [44 min] - Factorization of the Canonical Partition Function for Non-Interacting Particles
    
  • Video 2-12 [28 min] - The Virial Theorem and the Equipartition Theorem for Classical Systems
    
  • Video 2-13 [58 min] - Examples: The Specific Heat of Solids, Curie Paramagnetism
    
  • Video 2-14 [28 min] - A Note About the Proper Choice of Coordinates
    
  • Video 2-15 [61 min] - Entropy and Information
    
  • Video 2-16 [34 min] - The Grand Canonical Ensemble
    
  • Video 2-17 [62 min] - The Grand Canonical Ensemble and the Grand Potential
    
  • Video 2-18 [14 min] - Non-Interacting Particles in the Grand Canonical Ensemble
    
  • Video 2-19 [58 min] - Chemical Equilibrium and an Example: A Gas in Equillibrium with Adsorption Sites

• Unit 3 - Quantum Ensembles [11.3 hr]
  • Video 3-1 [83 min] - Quantum Ensembles and the Density Matrix
    
  • Video 3-2 [36 min] - Quantum Many Particle Systems -- Bosons vs Fermions
    
  • Video 3-3 [71 min] - Particle in a Box States, the Two Particle Density Matrix
    
  • Video 3-4 [45 min] - Quantum Partition Function for Non-Interacting Particles
    
  • Video 3-5 [42 min] - Average Occupation Numbers and Comparison of Quantum and Classical Ideal Gases
    
  • Video 3-6 [78 min] - The Quantized Harmonic Oscillator as Bosons, the Debye Model for the Specific Heat of a Solid
    
  • Video 3-7 [44 min] - Black Body Radiation
    
  • Video 3-8 [61 min] - The Quantum Ideal Gas and the Leading Quantum Correction to the Ideal Gas Law
    
  • Video 3-9 [73 min] - The Degenerate Fermi Gas, the Sommerfeld Model for Electrons in a Conductor
    
  • Video 3-10 [81 min] - Pauli Paramagnetism of the Electron Gas
    
  • Video 3-11 [66 min] - The Ideal Bose Gas and Bose-Einstein Condensation

• Unit 4 - Phase Transitions [8.5 hr]
  • Video 4-1 [34 min] - Classical Spin Models
    
  • Video 4-2 [63 min] - The Ising Model -- A Qualitative Discussion
    
  • Video 4-3 [41 min] - The Mean-Field Approxximation for the Ising Model
    
  • Video 4-4 [69 min] - Critical Exponents within the Mean-Field Approximation
    
  • Video 4-5 [45 min] - The Maxwell Construction and the Gibbs Free Energy
    
  • Video 4-6 [87 min] - The Liquid-Gas Phase Transition
    
  • Video 4-7 [84 min] - The Infinite Range Ising Model and the 1D Ising Model
    
  • Video 4-8 [88 min] - Fluctuations and the Ginzburg Criterion