OPT/TSF Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics

Lecturer: Tomáš Opatrný
Lecture: 3 hours/week + Exercise 1 hour/week
Credits: 5
Winter semester
Form of course completion: course credit, exam

Thermodynamics: Thermodynamic state and quantities, the laws of thermodynamics: the zeroth, first, second and third law of thermodynamics. Heat engines. Entropy and the arrow of time, Maxwell demon and its relation to the information theory, seeming violations of the second law. Thermodynamic potentials, Maxwell relations, thermodynamic stability. Statistical physics: Microstate and macrostate in classical and quantum physics, phase space, ergodic hypothesis, statistical definition of entropy. Statistical ensembles, microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensemble, partition function and its relation to thermodynamic variables. Two-level systems, harmonic oscillators and ideal gases, theory of heat capacities, Planck law. Quantum statistics of ideal gases, Bose-Einstein condensation, Fermi gas.