Scribd
Upload
738 views3 pages

Statmech 1

This document contains 4 problems related to statistical mechanics: 1) Molecules adsorbed on a surface with different energy configurations and calculating associated properties like entropy and heat capacity. 2) Non-interacting spins in a magnetic field and calculating properties like Gibbs free energy and susceptibility. 3) A polymer chain made of molecules that can align along different axes and calculating properties like average length and variance. 4) Rotational motion of polar rod molecules with a dipole moment in an electric field and calculating properties like mean polarization and heat capacity.

Uploaded by

Matt Guthrie
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
738 views3 pages

Statmech 1

This document contains 4 problems related to statistical mechanics: 1) Molecules adsorbed on a surface with different energy configurations and calculating associated properties like entropy and heat capacity. 2) Non-interacting spins in a magnetic field and calculating properties like Gibbs free energy and susceptibility. 3) A polymer chain made of molecules that can align along different axes and calculating properties like average length and variance. 4) Rotational motion of polar rod molecules with a dipole moment in an electric field and calculating properties like mean polarization and heat capacity.

Uploaded by

Matt Guthrie
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Assignment # 1: Page 1 Problem 1 Molecular adsorption: N diatomic molecules are stuck on a metal surface of square symmetry.

Each molecule can either lie at on the surface, in which case it must be aligned in one of two directions, x and y, or it can stand up along the z direction. There is an energy cost of > 0 associated with a molecule standing up, and zero energy for molecules lying at along the x or y directions. (a) How many microstates have the smallest value of energy? What is the largest microstate energy? (b) For microcanonical macrostates of energy E, calculate the number of states (E, N ), and the entropy S(E, N ). (c) Calculate the heat capacity C(T ) and sketch it. (d) What is the probability that a specic molecule is standing up? (e) What is the largest probable value of the internal energy at any positive temperature? Problem 2 Curie susceptibility: consider N non-interacting quantized spins in a magnetic eld B = B z , and at a temperature T . The work done by the eld is given by BMz , with a magnetization Mz = N mi . For each spin, mi takes only the 2s + 1 values s, s + 1, ..., s 1, s. i=1 (a) Calculate the Gibbs partition function Z(T, B). (Note that the ensemble corresponding to the macrostate (T, B) includes magnetic work.) (b) Calculate the Gibbs free energy G(T, B), and show that for small B,

G(B) = G(0)

N 2 s(s + 1)B 2 + O(B 4 ). 6kB T

(c) Calculate the zero eld susceptibility

Assignment # 1: Page 2

Mz B

B=0

and show that it satises Curies law c . T

(d) Show that CB CM = respectively. Problem 3

cB 2 , T2

where CB and CM are heat capacities at constant B and M ,

One-dimensional polymer : consider a polymer formed by connecting N disc-shaped molecules into a one-dimensional chain. Each molecule can align along either its long axis (of length 2a) or its short axis (length a). The energy of the monomer aligned along its shorter axis is higher by , that is, the total energy is H = U , where U is the number of monomers standing up.

(a) Calculate the partition function, Z(T, N ), of the polymer. (b) Find the relative probabilities for a monomer to be aligned along its short or long axis. (c) Calculate the average length, L(T, N ) , of the polymer. (d) Obtain the variance, L(T, N )2 c . (e) What does the central limit theorem say about the probability distribution for the length L(T, N ). Problem 4 Polar rods: consider rod-shaped molecules with moment of inertia I, and a dipole moment . The contribution of the rotational degrees of freedom to the Hamiltonian is given by

Assignment # 1: Page 3

Hrot. =

1 2I

p2 +

p2 sin2

E cos

where E is an external electric eld. ( [0, 2], [0, ] are the azimuthal and polar angles, and p , p are their conjugate momenta.) (a) Calculate the contribution of the rotational degrees of freedom of each dipole to the classical partition function. (b) Obtain the mean polarization P = cos of each dipole. (c) Find the zero-eld polarizability

T =

P E

.
E=0

(d) Calculate the rotational energy per particle (at nite E), and comment on its high and low temperature limits. (e) Sketch the rotational heat capacity per dipole.

You might also like