Spring 2009 – Syllabus / Course Information

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Instructor: Dr Luca Bombelli E-mail: <bombelli at olemiss.edu>; Phone: (662) 915-5319 Fax: (662) 915-5045; Website: www.olemiss.edu/~bombelli Office: Lewis 105; Office hours: By appointment. Class Location and Time: Lewis conference room 228, MW 8:00-9:15 Textbook: M Plischke and B Bergersen, Equilibrium Statistical Physics 3rd Edition (World Scientific / Imperial College Press 2006)

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Course Description: This is a one-semester introduction to the fundamentals of statistical mechanics for graduate students in physics and related disciplines. We begin with a quick introduction to general concepts and techniques of probability and statistics, and a review of thermodynamics. The main part of the course covers classical and quantum equilibrium statistical mechanics and its application to the main examples of interest in physics, such as ideal gases of bosons and fermions, photons, electrons in metals, and solids. Special topics to be covered will include phase transitions, with some numerical Monte Carlo calculations. The last part of the course is devoted to an introduction to non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and transport processes.

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Assignments: Homework assignments will be given, approximately one every week. Homework will be graded mostly for technical content, but also for the completeness and clarity of the explanation. Tests: There will be two 50-minute midterm tests (given on Friday mornings in the same time slot), including both conceptual questions and short problems, and a (cumulative) final exam, with a similar format. I will expect you to be familiar with the material covered in the lectures. This means knowing the definitions and physical meaning of the terms and concepts discussed (even if not explicitly written down in the lecture notes) and being able to provide short derivations and solve short problems based on the same material. It does not mean remembering all the equations, but you should know the general statistical mechanics relationships and the Hamiltonians used as starting points for the derivations. You are not responsible for knowing the material in the suggested references that we did not cover in class, but reading those is likely to help you. Grading Scale: (Tentative) A, 87%-100%; B, 75%-86%, C, 60%-74%, D, 40%-59%, F, less than 40%.

Evaluation Grading Scheme Homework ...... 40 % Test 1 ........ 20 % Test 2 ........ 20 % Final Exam .... 20 % (may change if a graded computational component is added to the course)