[Dr. Jayandren Rasaiah] Course Offerings -- (Schedule
Variable)
Statistical Thermodynamics:
(CHY 673 / PHY 512)
(3 Credit Hours)
This course is offered to graduate students in chemistry,
physics, biochemistry and chemical engineering.
Prerequisites: Undergraduate Physical Chemistry, Modern
Physics or equivalent

Syllabus
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Thermodynamics of fluids and
magnetic systems. Critical phenomena and exponents.
Thermodynamics of surfaces. |
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The Ergodic Theorem. The
Microcanonical, Canonical and Grand Canonical Ensembles.
Fluctuations. |
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Applications to Non-interacting
(ideal) Systems. Photons and Phonons. Einstein and Fermi-Dirac
Statistics. The Langmuir Adsorption Isotherm. The Classical limit
and Ideal Gases. Chemical Equilibria and Ideal Gases. Ideal
Dipoles in an Electric Field. |
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Non-ideal fluids. The
Configurational Partition Function. Conformal Potentials and the
Law of Corresponding States. Distribution Functions g(r).
Integral Equation approximations for g(r). Thermodynamic
Perturbation Theory. |
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Cooperative phenomena. The Ising
model. The Lattice Gas model and Binary alloys. Mean Field
Theories. Landau-Ginsburg Theory. High and Low Temperature
Expansions. Widom and Kadanoff Scaling. Intoduction to
Renormalization group. |
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Time dependent phenomena. The
Liouville Equation. Time Correlation functions and Onsager's
Regression Hypothesis. The Fluctuation Dissipation Theorem and
Linear Response Theory. Friction and the Langevin Equation.
Chemical Reaction rates-Transition State Theory and Kramers'
Theory. |
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Computer simulation of Simple
Fluids and Magnetic systems. Introduction to Monte Carlo and
Molecular dynamics.(time permitting) |

Texts
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Statistical Mechanics —
Lecture notes J. C. Rasaiah |
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Statistical Mechanics of Phase
Transitions, J. M.Yeomans (Oxford) |
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Introduction to Modern Statistical
Mechanics; David Chandler, (Oxford). |
References
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Statistical Thermodynamics and
Kinetic Theory; Charles E. Hecht (Dover) |
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An Introduction to Statistical
Thermodynamics; T. L. Hill (Dover) |
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Statistical Mechanics; Donald
McQuarrie (Harper and Row) |
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A Course in Statistical Mechanics
by H. L. Friedman (Prentice Hall) |
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Statistical Mechanics; Kerson
Huang, (John Wiley) |
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Statistical Physics I ⅈ M.
Toda, R. Kubo, N. Saito and N. Hashitsume. (Springer Verlag) |
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Statistical Thermodynamics for
Chemists and Biochemists; A. Ben Naim (Plenum) |
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Statistical mechanics of Strongly
Interacting Systems: Encyclopedia of Chemical Physics and
Physical Chemistry; J. C. Rasaiah |
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Lectures in Phase Transitions and
Renormalization Group; N. Goldenfield (Adison- Wesley) |
|