CFU
6
Length
14 Weeks
Semester DD
Second
Phase Spaces and Liouville theorem. Microcanonical ensemble. Gibbs Paradox. Canonical Ensemble. Grandcanonical ensemble. Quantum Statistical Mechanics: pho
ton gas and Planck formula. Bose Einstein Condensation. Fermi-Dirac gases. Applications: electron gas in metals, vibrations in crystalline solids, specific heat of solids.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: The teaching consists of lectures and exercises and aims to provide students with a solid basic preparation and the fundamentals of statistical mechanics and main applications of its methods of investigation in various fields.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: Students must acquire the knowledge of statistical mechanics and its applications. The verification of the students' learning outcomes is aimed at assessing the students' ability to apply the acquired knowledge, and is carried out with written exams, both during the course and at the end of the course, and with a final oral exam.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: Students must be familiar with the scientific method of investigation and must be able to apply it in the representation and/or modeling of physical reality. They must be able to apply the methods and procedures described during the classes by demonstrating a professional approach, and must have adequate skills both to support theoretical arguments and to solve problems in the field of statistical mechanics. They must be able to identify the essential ingredients in a problem of statistical mechanics, knowing how to handle them with the necessary approximations.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS: Students must be able to critically analyze the results. They must also be able to use books with technical content and must be able to use the electronic archives available on the WEB for a possible support, making the necessary selection of the information available. Finally, they must know how to motivate the techniques used and the descriptions performed, assessing the correctness, consistency, completeness and effectiveness of their treatments.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Students must be able to present their results in a synthetic and analytical way, highlighting the relevant and essential points, providing examples, and using a competent technical language. To this end it is important to have a sufficient knowledge of English to understand the scientific texts, by participating in specific English courses for the Macro Area of Sciences.
LEARNING SKILLS: Students must acquire an understanding of statistical mechanics and how this is applicable to various fields of study. This will be done by reading and understanding technical descriptions, selecting and correlating various topics and asking the right questions. In this way they will be able to tackle new fields through an independent study.