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Statistical Mechanics

Offering:

Spring, Class 3, cr. 3

Prerequisites:

PHYS-600 or equivalent

Description:

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.

Textbook(s) for Spring 2013

Textbooks for Spring 2013
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