Spring, Class 3, cr. 3
PHYS-600 or equivalent
This is a core course in Statistical Mechanics intended for all Physics graduate students at Purdue. The material covered is at a somewhat more advanced level than the typical undergraduate course on the subject. Topics will range from a treatment of the Boltzmann equation to an introduction to phase transitions and critical phenomena. A good knowledge of Thermodynamics is necessary. If you have not taken a course in Thermodynamics a number of good books on the subject are available and should be studied before attending the course. Although a certain knowledge of mathematical methods for Physics (like for instance the material covered in PHYS-600 and PHYS-601 at Purdue) would be very useful, the course is mostly self-contained.
| Course | Title | Author | Edition | ISBN | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHYS617 | RECOMMENDED: Statistical Physics | R. K. Pathria | 2nd; (August 6, 1996) | 0750624698 | Butterworth-Heinemann |
| PHYS617 | RECOMMENDED: Physical Kintics (Course of Theoretical Physics) | Lifshtz and Pitaevskii | December 1981 | 0080264808 | Butterworth & Heinemann Ltd |
| PHYS617 | RECOMMENDED: Notes on Thermodynamics and Statistics | Enrico Fermi | September 1988 | 0226243796 | University of Chicago Press (Tx) |
| PHYS617 | RECOMMENDED: Statistical Mechanics | Kerson Huang | 2nd; (May 13, 1987) | 471815187 | Wiley & Sons |
| PHYS617 | REQUIRED: Statistical Physics Vol. 1 | Landau and Lifshitz | 3rd; (February 1969) | 0080230393 or 0080230385 (paperback) | Pergamon Press |
| PHYS617 | RECOMMENDED: Statisical Physics I (Lecture notes in Control and Information Sciences) | Morikazu Toda | January 1992 (Paperback) | 0387536620 | Springer |