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Statistical physics 704


 
Module code PHY 704
Qualification Postgraduate
Faculty Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Module content

Thermodynamic behaviour of an ideal Bose gas:  Bose-Einstein functions, the virial expansion, the Riemann zeta-function, Bose-Einstein condensation.  Phonons:  the field of sound waves, inertial density of the sound field, elementary excitations in liquid helium II.  Ideal Fermi systems:  thermodynamic behaviour of an ideal Fermi gas, Fermi-Dirac functions and their relation to Bose-Einstein functions, the virial expansion, the Fermi energy, asymptotic expansions at low temperature, magnetic behaviour of an ideal Fermi gas (Pauli paramagnetism, Landau diamagnetism).  Quantised fields:  free bosonic quantum fields, interacting quantum fields, interacting Hamiltonian, interactions in terms of creation and annihilation operators, imperfect Bose gasses at low temperature, fermionic quantum fields, interacting theory, the ground state of an imperfect Fermi gas.  Phase transition in the Ising model:  mean field theory, critical exponents.
Module credits 15.00
NQF Level 08
Prerequisites No prerequisites.
Contact time 4 lectures per week
Language of tuition Module is presented in English
Department Physics
Period of presentation Semester 1
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