Introduction to statistical physics (Q5935342)

Thermodynamics is concerned with (empirical) laws of the thermal behaviour of macroscopic bodies. Statistical physics attempts to explain these laws by considering the large number of constituent particles from a statistical point of view. This is also the point of view of this textbook, which emerged from lectures. It is written in an informal, physics type style, but presents precise and well explained arguments. It supports intuition more than formalism, and discusses a large number of relevant examples and models. The core is ensemble theory, with thorough applications to particle gases. Phase transitions are also covered, as is a short introduction to nonequilibrium systems. The list of references is well chosen and contains comments which facilitate further readings. The Portuguese original (University of Sao Paulo, 1997) was not reviewed.