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The document is an assignment for a Statistical Mechanics course, consisting of short answer and descriptive questions related to concepts such as phase space, ensembles, partition functions, and thermodynamic properties. It includes numerical problems involving distinguishable particles and energy levels, focusing on microstates, macrostate distributions, and thermodynamic probabilities. The assignment aims to assess understanding of key statistical mechanics principles and their applications.

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Kshirasagar Kishan
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6 views

assignment_1

The document is an assignment for a Statistical Mechanics course, consisting of short answer and descriptive questions related to concepts such as phase space, ensembles, partition functions, and thermodynamic properties. It includes numerical problems involving distinguishable particles and energy levels, focusing on microstates, macrostate distributions, and thermodynamic probabilities. The assignment aims to assess understanding of key statistical mechanics principles and their applications.

Uploaded by

Kshirasagar Kishan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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
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Govt. (Auto.

) College, Rourkela
Department of Physics
Statistical Mechanics (Core - XIV)
SM, Date: Feb 25, 2020

Submission Date: Assignment 1 Unit-I & II

Short Answer Type Questions

1. (a) Define phase space and phase trajectory.


(b) What is an ensemble?
(c) Write down the characteristics of Canonical Ensemble.
(d) Write the partition function of canonical ensemble.
(e) What is grand canonical ensemble?
(f) Differentiate between microstates and macrostates.
(g) State and explain the law of Equipartion of energy.
(h) How many microstates are possible due to 5 particles in a macrostate?
(i) What is the total number of accessible states of n-number of non-interacting
spin- 12 particles.
(j) The value of adiabatic constant of an ideal monoatomic gas is .
(k) Write down an expression for partition function of ideal monoatomic gas.
(l) What is minimum volume of phase cell in quantum statistics.
(m) Define probability of a macrostate.
(n) State conservation laws used in Statistical Mechanics.
(o) What is the significance of the partition functions.
Ans. In physics, a partition function describes the statistical properties of a
system in thermodynamic equilibrium. Partition functions are functions of the
thermodynamic state variables, such as the temperature and volume. Most of the
aggregate thermodynamic variables of the system, such as the total energy, free
energy, entropy, and pressure, can be expressed in terms of the partition func-
tion or its derivatives. The partition function is dimensionless. Each partition
function is constructed to represent a particular statistical ensemble (which, in
turn, corresponds to a particular free energy).

Descriptive Questions

2. (a) What is a canonical ensemble? Explain microcanonical, canonical and grand


canonical ensembles with example.
(b) What is Thermodynamic Probability? Obtain an expression for it.
(c) Discuss the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law and hence find an expression for
the velocity distribution. Discuss the limitations of Maxwell-Boltzmann Statis-
tics.
(d) Write short note on Maxwell-Boltzmann’s distribution law.
(e) Derive the partition function for classical ideal gas, from which calculate the
various thermodynamic quantities such as average pressure, average energy,
Helmholtz free energy and entropy.
(f) What is Gibb’s paradox for entropy of mixing of two ideal gases? Find out
Sackur-Tetrode equation for entropy for indistinguishable particles.
(g) State and derive the law of equipartition of energy and show that heat capacity
is directly related to the number of degrees of freedom of the system.
(h) Show that P V = RT , using partition function of Ideal gas.
(i) What do you mean by partition function? Consider the systems which are sepa-
rated by conducting, rigid and impenetrable walls so that no transfer of matter
will be possible, only heat can exchange. Find out the probability distribution
of particle.
(j) Explain the concept of negative temperature with reference to a system of
dipoles.
(k) State and explain Gibb’s Paradox.
(l) Discuss macro to micro connections for the microcanonical, canonical, and grand
canonical ensembles?

Numerical Questions

3. Consider a system consisting of just four distinguishable particles, each of which


can have an energy which is integer multiple of ε, i.e., 0, ε, 2ε, 3ε, 4ε, ....
(a) For the macrostate(N = 4, E = 4ε), find distributions of microstates (thermo-
dynamic probability of macrostate).
(b) Find total number of microstates corresponding to the above given macrostate.

(c) Considering principle of equal a priori probabilities, find average number of


particles with zero energy for an given ensemble of systems in the specified
microstate.
(d) Plot ⟨ni ⟩ v s εi .
(e) Find most probable distribution for the above macrostate.

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4. Consider a system of N identical but distinguishable particles, each of which has
two energy levels with energy 0 or E > 0. The upper energy level has a g-fold
degeneracy while the lower level is non-degenerate. The total energy of the system
is E (where n+ corresponds to the upper level and n0 to the lower one).
(a) Using the microcanonical ensemble, find the occupation number n+ and n0 in
terms of the temperature of the system.
(b) Consider the case g = 2. If the system has energy E = 0.75N E and is brought
into contact with a bath at constant temperature T = 500K, in what direction
does heat flow?

Best wishes

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