2016-Stat-Mech-I

[[image:statistical_mechanics_pathria.jpg width="222" height="300" align="right" caption="Pathia & Beale (third edition)"]] Statistical Mechanics I (Spring, 2016)
**Lecturer:** Prof. Hsiu-Hau LIN **Time:** F6F7F8 (14:20-17:20) on Fridays **Location:** Room 019 in Physics Building **Textbook:** Statistical Mechanics by Pathria and Beale (third edition) You can download the e-textbook from NTHU Library!

Course description
The course contents covered in **Statistical Mechanics I** is rather standard and I will try to follow Pathria without too many detours :) The tentative plan is to finish the first nine chapters in the textbook. The real beef of statistical mechanics can be found in the sibling course ** Statistical Mechanics II ** with detail notes and homework problems.

Grades
**Midterm 1 (25%):** 14:20-17:20 on ** March 27 (Sunday) **, Chapter 1-3 **Midterm 2 (25%):** 14:20-17:20 on ** May 6 (Friday) ** Chapter 4-6 **Final (25%):** 14:20-17:20 on ** June 17 (Friday) ** Chapter 7-9


 * Classroom Engagement (25%): ** Discussions and participations in class are encouraged and thus counted as part of your overall grade for the course. In addition to the classroom interactions, you are also encouraged to deliver the **Pecha Kucha Talks** -- 20 slides with 20 seconds each. This activity is to encourage and to highlight the importance of presentation skill. And, good performance will earn you bonus points :)

Updates

 * (Jan 22) Syllabus revised.
 * (Dec 7) Syllabus uploaded on wikispaces.

Syllabus
Introduction
 * Week 1 (Feb 19) **

梅竹，不上課
 * Week 2 (Feb 26) **

L1: Statistical basis of thermodynamics (Chap 1)
 * Week 3 (Mar 4) **

L2: Microcanonical ensemble (Chap 2)
 * Week 4 (Mar 11) **

L3: Canonical ensemble (Chap 3)
 * Week 5 (Mar 18) **

L4: Canonical ensemble 2 (Chap 3)
 * Week 6 (Mar 25) **


 * 14:20-17:20 on Mar 27 **
 * Midterm 1 (Chap 1-3) **

春假，不上課
 * Week 7 (Apr 1) **

L5: Grand canonical ensemble (Chap 4)
 * Week 8 (Apr 8) **


 * Week 9 (Apr 15) **
 * 發考卷 **

L6: Quantum statistics (Chap 5)
 * Week 10 (Apr 22) **

L7: Simple gases (Chap 6)
 * Week 11 (Apr 29) **


 * Week 12 (May 6) **
 * Midterm 2 (Chap 4-6) **

**發考卷**
 * Week 13 (May 13) **

L8: Bose gas (Chap 7)
 * Week 14 (May 20) **

L9: Fermi gas (Chap 8)
 * Week 15 (May 27) **

L10: (Chap 9)
 * Week 16 (June 3) **

端午，不上課
 * Week 17 (June 10) **


 * Week 18 (June 17) **
 * Final (Chap 7-9) **

隨著留言討論越來越多，可以直接點選討論版面連結， 就看到所有過去的提問與討論.