Elementary Lectures in Statistical Mechanics

This textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in physics and physical chemistry covers the major areas of statistical mechanics and concludes with a demonstration of applications of statistical mechanics at the level of current research. The presentation begins with the fundamental ideas of averages and ensembles, focusing on classical systems described by continuous variables such as position and momentum, and using the ideal gas as an example. It then turns to quantum systems, beginning with diatomic molecules and working up through blackbody radiation and chemical equilibria. The discussion of equilibrium properties of systems of interacting particles includes presents such techniques as cluster expansions and distribution functions and uses non-ideal gases, liquids, and solutions as examples. Dynamic behavior - treated more extensively than in other texts - is discussed from the point of view of correlation functions. The text concludes with a problem of current research, namely diffusion in a suspension of interacting hard spheres and what can be learned about such a system from scattered light. Intended for a one-semester course, the text includes several "asides" on topics that are usually omitted from introductory courses, as well as numerous problems at the ends of chapters.