Modern Concepts in Statistical Physics module (PH42004)

In this module, you will learn the basics of statistical physics's modern (20th-century) formulations. This will serve as a basis for further post-graduate studies of many-body physics. 

Topics include: 

• Review of thermodynamics: state variables, equation of state, laws of thermodynamics; fundamental equation of thermodynamics; thermodynamic potentials. 
• Classical statistical mechanics ensembles (micro-canonical, canonical, macro-canonical) 
• Black-body radiation. Failure of classical physics. Planck's formula. 
• Specific heat of solids. Einstein and Debye models. 
• Fermi-Dirac statistics. Fermi energy. Sommerfeld expansion. 
• Bose-Einstein statistics. Bose-Einstein condensation. 
• Thermodynamics of phase transitions. Ehrenfest classification of phase transitions. 
• Scaling (phenomenology). Scaling relations. Landau's mean-field theory of continuous phase transitions. 
• Basic of out-of-equilibrium physics. Random walk. Langevin equation. Brownian motion. Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process.