Statistical Mechanics-I

Dynamics

In general:
We do not always have sufficient number
of analytic constants of motion in order to write
the solution explicitly.

How to tackle such systems?

Statistical Mechanics!
Recap…
 Dynamics

Keeps moving chaotically.

The whole phase space is not accessible to the system since E is specified.
Recap…
Thus only the shell E to E + E an energy shell.
 Principle Maximum Ignorance

Recap…
 Statistical Mechanics-I
Syllabus:
I. Classical and Quantum Statistical Mechanics
II. Ideal Bose Gas
III. Ideal Fermi Gas
I. Classical and Quantum Statistical Mechanics:
1. Introduction
2. Postulate
3. Ensembles
a. Microcanonical ensemble
b. Canonical ensemble
c. Grand canonical ensemble
4. Partition function
a. What is partition function
 Dynamics
Microstate of the system

(q,p) q (3N),p(3N)
N Particles

We know that E is a constant,

We know the total volume occupied is V,
Also we have total number of particles N,

Macrostate of the system: (N,V,E)

Dynamics
 Elements of Ensample Theory
For a given macrosystem
(N,V,E), at any time t, the
system is equally likely to
be in any one of the
extremely large number
microstate of the system.

As time passes it switches from one microstate to another.

Thus if you average over time you will get a average behavior
which will be an average over several microstate of the system.
 Elements of Ensample Theory

So we make mental copies of the given

system characterized for a given
microstate, all sorts of microstates.

The average over an ensample of time averaged behavior of the

the microstate of the system = system.
 Microcanonical Ensemble
In classical Hamiltonian dynamics in phase space the probability density of the
system obeys equation of the form,

This is the Liouville’s equation.

For a given system which is in thermal equilibrium, r should be a function of

only H. Therefore under these conditions for a closed isolated system,

the equilibrium density.

In the energy shell probability for equal size of area is equal. This ensemble is
called as microcanonical ensemble.
 Microcanonical Ensemble

The number of microstates are infinite so the probability for

finding the system in a point (sharp value) is zero!
 Microcanonical Ensemble
In the phase space we have a resolution problem something
proportional to h. Thus the small volume element is ultimately
proportional to

Thus the volume of phase space is then the number of

microstates in the system is

Then the probability of each of the state is

 A Toy Model
Microstates and Macrostates
Let us take a set of coins, N coins, each can be h or t. N identical coins
After a tossing experiment I have a result,

It is the microstate of the system.

 A Toy Model

Number of macrostates

The probability of getting a microstate

If I select a system among the possible macrostate it has

a probability

If I make all possible microstates and select a microstate the probability that it will
be having H heads, i.e. a macrostate (N,H) is
P(E)
 A Toy Model

This is the probability distribution.

It is called as the binomial distribution.
A Toy Model
A Toy Model
A Toy Model
A Toy Model

2
 A Toy Model

Ones we have the generating function we can find

all the moments.

How to find generating function?

The word for generating function is called as

partition function. It will tell you how to calculate
average value.
 A Toy Model

Why it is more probable to have 50 heads and 50 tails in a 100

coin toss.

That’s how the world works!

It is possible one particle carries all the energy and all others
are zero movement.

That is why statistics works.

Thank You!