Lecture 4 25.08.

21

Microcanonical Ensemble

Ergodicity:

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Lecture 4 25.08.21

Microcanonical Ensemble

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Recap
●
Macrostate, Microstate, Ensemble

●
Equilibrium: Measurement of a property of a system not changing over a sufficient
time span (time independence).
--> Formulation of equilibrium stat mech ensures equilibrium
●
Postulate of Equal apriori Probability: (intuitive guess --> apriori)
For isolated system in equilibrium, all microstates are Equally Probabable.
●
Microcanonical ensemble: (in accordance with PEAP)
An ensemble whose members are distributed among accessible microstates W
in accordance with prob. 1/W is called Microcanonical ensemble.

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Recap
●
Macrostate, Microstate, Ensemble

●
Equilibrium: Measurement of a property of a system not changing over a sufficient
time span (time independence).
--> Formulation of equilibrium stat mech ensures equilibrium
●
Postulate of Equal apriori Probability: (intuitive guess --> apriori)
For isolated system in equilibrium, all microstates are Equally Probabable.
●
Microcanonical ensemble: (in accordance with PEAP)
An ensemble whose members are distributed among accessible microstates W
in accordance with prob. 1/W is called Microcanonical ensemble.

conjugate pairs: (T.S) (P.V) (H.M) (N. )

Statistical Mechanics, Sem V, 2021-2022

Dr. Poulomi Sadhukhan 42
Recap
●
Macrostate, Microstate, Ensemble

●
Equilibrium: Measurement of a property of a system not changing over a sufficient
time span (time independence).
--> Formulation of equilibrium stat mech ensures equilibrium
●
Postulate of Equal apriori Probability: (intuitive guess --> apriori)
For isolated system in equilibrium, all microstates are Equally Probabable.
●
Microcanonical ensemble: (in accordance with PEAP)
An ensemble whose members are distributed among accessible microstates W
in accordance with prob. 1/W is called Microcanonical ensemble.

●
System & interaction:

Fixed wall

Adiabetic wall

Impermeable wall

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 Systems & Interactions

Interactions in between subsystems:

●
Thermal interaction: Two subsystem is in thermal contact, or heat exchange allowed.
●
Mechanical interaction: subsystems can undergo volume change
●
Diffusive interaction: subsystems can exchange particles.

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 Thermal Interaction
Interactions in between subsystems:
●
Thermal interaction: Two subsystem is in thermal contact, or heat exchange allowed
(diathermic wall)
●
Whole system is isolated. No exchange with surroundings.
●
Total energy of the whole system or sum of two subsystems is constant.

E = E1+E2

V = V1+V2, N = N1+N2

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Concept of ensembles
●
Classification of ensembles depending on the set of variables that are constant
variables: E, N, V, T, µ, P

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Concept of ensembles
●
Classification of ensembles depending on the set of variables that are constant
variables: E, N, V, T, µ, P
Reservoir/bath: Certain quantity (variable) does not
change even after interaction with
another (sub)system.
Ex. heat bath, particle reservoir

Reservoir is much larger system compared to the

(sub)system for which it is acting as reservoir.

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 Probability
●
For a given macrostate with the constraints {X},
suppose there are W numbers of microstates
●
Probability P of each microstate (in an isolated equilibrium system) is given by 1/W

example: for a dice with 6 sides, probability of getting any particular side, say 2, is 1/6.

●
Probability that a system is found in the given macrostate with internal constraints {X}
is proportional to W

●
For two independent events having probability P1 and P2, the joint probability that both
the events occur is P= P1xP2

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Statistical Mechanics, Sem V, 2021-2022
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 Probability
Given a macrostate with internal constraints {X}:
●
If there are two subsystems in a system with given
macrostate 1 (N1, V1, E1) for subsystem 1 with number of accessible microstates W1,
and
macrostate 2 (N2, V2, E2) for subsystem 2 with number of accessible microstates W2,
then
the number of accessible microstates of the whole system (of independent subsystems)
is given by the product
W = W1 x W2
The probability of finding the system under above constraints is proportional to W1 x W2,

or, P(N1,V1,E1; N2,V2,E2) = c W(N1,V1,E1; N2,V2,E2)

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