Phys.

3341 Homework Solution Set #3

Yoav Kallus

1 Reif 3.1
(a) Each molecule has an independent one-in-four chance of being in the smaller
partition. Therefore, the mean number of He and Ne molecules respectively in
that partition are 25 and 250 respectively. In the larger partition, consequently,
they are 75 and 750.
(b) The probability of finding all He molecules in the smaller partition and
all Ne molecules in the larger partition is (1/4)100 (3/4)1000 < 10−185 . Note that
we cannot use the Gaussian approximation here, since we are very far from the
maximum of the binomial distribution.

2 Reif 3.2
(a) The number of states of energy E = nµH is given by the number of ways
of assigning (N − n)/2 spins parallel to the external field and (N + n)/2 spins
anti-parallel to it. Namely,
N!
Ω(E) = N −n N +n (1)
2 ! 2 !

N −n N −n N −n
≃ exp N log N − N − log + (2)
2 2 2

N +n N +n N +n
− log + , (3)
2 2 2

where n = E/µH. The inverse-temperature is then

β = 1/kB T = ∂ log Ω(E)/∂E (4)

= (1/µH)∂ log Ω(E)/∂n (5)
 
log(N − n) log(N + n)
= (1/µH) − (6)
2 2
s
1 − E/N µH
= (1/µH) log . (7)
1 + E/N µH

(b) The temperature is negative when the argument of the log in (7) is less
than one; namely, when 1 − E/N µH < 1 + E/N µH or equivelantly E > 0.

1
For all non-negative tempatures the energy will be negative (more spins will be
aligned with the field than are not).
(c) First, we should solve (7) for the energy:
s
1 − E/N µH
µH/T = log (8)
1 + E/N µH
1 − E/N µH
e2µH/T = (9)
1 + E/N µH
E 1 − e2µH/T
= (10)
N µH 1 + e2µH/T
 
sinh(−µH/T ) µH
E(H, T ) = N µH = −N µH tanh . (11)
cosh(−µH/T ) T

The energy is related to the magnetization by E = −M H, so the magnetization

is simply
 
µH
M (H, T ) = N µ tanh . (12)
T

3 Reif 3.4
The system A, initially at temperature Ti , absorbs heat Q from the reservoir
A′ at temperatute T ′ changing its temperature to Tf . Therefore we know,
since heat flows spontaneously only from hotter systems to colder systems, that
Ti ≤ Tf ≤ T ′ . From the definition of temperature, we know that as a system
of temperature T changes its energy by an infinitesimal amount dU , its entropy
changes by dS = dU/T . In our case, dU = d̄Q, since there is no work done by
the system. Therefore, we have that the total change of entropy of the system
is going to be
Tf
d̄Q
Z
∆S = . (13)
Ti T

By the mean value theorem,

Q Q Q
≤ ≤ ∆S ≤ . (14)
T′ Tf Ti

We have an equality in the limit that the system started at a temperature

arbitrarily near the temperature of the bath.

4 Reif 3.5
(a) Since all particles of the system are weakly interacting, the volume of phase
space accessible to the system grows as V Ntot , where Ntot = N1 + N2 is the

2
total number of particles in the system. We can write this dependence as
Ω(E, V ) = ω(E)V N1 +N2 . (15)
(b) The pressure is determined by the change in the energy of the system for
an infinitesimal change in volume if the relative probability of different states
and the number of accessible states does not change. We can write this as a
negative partial derivative of E with respect to V , holding Ω(E, V ) constant.
Taking the derivative holding Ω constant on both sides of (15) we get
dω(E)
0= (−P )V N1 +N2 + ω(E)(N1 + N2 )V N1 +N2 −1 . (16)
dE
Solving for the pressure,
N1 + N2
P = . (17)
V (dω(E)/dE)/ω(E)
Note that the temperature is given by
 
∂ log(Ω(E, V )) dω(E)/dE
1/kB T = = , (18)
∂E V ω(E)
so the pressure becomes
kB (N1 + N2 )T
P = . (19)
V

5 Elser 4.1
We worked out on the last problem set that for a three-dimensional gas of N
atoms, we have Φ(E) ∝ E 3N/2 . Using the same method, you can also derive
that Φ(E) ∝ E 2N/2 for the two-dimensional gas. The number of states in
a narrow range [E, E + δE] is then Ω(E) ∝ E 3N/2−1 δE for the 3D gas and
Ω(E) ∝ E N −1 δE for the 2D gas.
We know the partition of energy will maximize the total number of states
accessible to the system, which is
Ω0 (E; E3D ) = Ω3D (E3D )Ω2D (E2D = E − E3D ). (20)
This is equivalent to maximize the logarithm of the above, whose derivate when
we set to zero give us
d d
log Ω3D (E3D ) + Ω2D (E − E3D ) = 0 (21)
dE3D dE3D
3N3D 1 1
( − 1) − (N2D − 1) = 0. (22)
2 E3D E2D
Since N3D , N2D ≫ 1, we get then
E3D E2D
= , (23)
3N3D 2N2D
which tells us that the energy is divided in proportion with the number of
degrees of freedom in each system.