FY811: Thermal Physis II (5 ECTS)

STADS: 07004901

Level
Master's level course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the spring semester.
4th quarter

Teacher responsible
Email: ipsen@memphys.sdu.dk

Additional teachers
lyngs@memphys.sdu.dk
steen@sdu.dk
svt@sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Bachelor´s degree in Nanobioscience. The course is only intended for students that are enrolled in the master programme nanobioscience. FY810 Thermal physics I must have been attended.

Course introduction
The course gives an introduction to the fundamental concepts of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics and shows their applications to selected physical and chemical systems and to the interpretation of experiments

Expected learning outcome
After having attended the course, the students are expected to be able to:

1. Explain and apply the statistical basis of the laws of thermodynamics
2. Apply the relationships betwen thermal response functions and statistical correlations
3. Formulate and use equilibrium conditions in statistical mechanics
4. Apply the most common ensembles for calculations of average and dispersion values of standard variables
5. Calculate thermodynamics functions for classical and quantum gases
6. Write down partition sums for molecules and solids and calculate the appropriate thermodynamic variables
7. Apply the mean field approximation for strongly interacting systems

Subject overview

• The topics are applications of statistical mechanics to simple, realistic systems, e.g. quantum systems, phase and chemical equilibria, and the mean field theory of interacting systems. Experimental exercises illustrate the importance of Fermi-Dirac statistics for the description of the properties of solids. A written report is written by groups of 1 or 2 students must contain: the needed theory, the measured data, and an interpretation of the data.
• Vibration and rotation spectra for diatomic molecules.
• Einstein’s and Debye’s theories of lattice vibrations
• Black body radiation and Bose-Einstein condensation
• Phase equilibrium, chemical equilibrium, the law of mass action.
• Phase changes are discussed on a statistical mechanical basis.
• Mean field theory of interacting systems: Ising model of ferro-magnetism and Debye-Hückel theory of diluted ionic solutions.

Literature

• S.J. Blundell og K.M. Blundell: Concepts in Thermal Physics (second edition) 2010, Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-956210-7 (paperback) findes også i Hard-udgave.

Syllabus
See syllabus.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:
a) Written project reports followed by a short oral exam (15 minutes) with the project reports as a starting point. Marks according to the Danish 7-point grading scale, external examiner.

Re-exam after 2nd quarter.
The examination type at reexamination may differ from the one at the ordinary examination.

Date of exam
The ordinary exam takes place on June 25, 2012
The re-examination takes place on January 11, 2013

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.

Lectures: 20 hours
Tutorials: 22 hours
Laboratory exercises: 8 hours
Educational activities

Language
This course is taught in English, if international students participate. Otherwise the course is taught in Danish.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.