Statistical thermodynamics

Authors Wolfgang Göpel, Hans-Dieter Wiemhöfer

Publication date 15 January 2002

irreversible thermodynamics statistical mechanics

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to statistical mechanics (82-01) Classical equilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82B05) Quantum equilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82B10) Statistical thermodynamics (82B30) Irreversible thermodynamics, including Onsager-Machlup theory (82B35) Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C05) Statistical mechanics of gases (82D05) Statistical mechanics of liquids (82D15) Statistical mechanics of polymers (82D60)

Review text

This textbook, arising from a long lecturing activity which has greatly contributed to the clarity and logical order of the presentation, is mainly addressed to students in chemistry and material sciences, but also physicists looking for an overview of applications of statistical mechanics in concrete examples. Statistical mechanics is presented as an attempt to explain the behavior of macroscopic bodies on the basis of the laws driving motion and interactions of its elementary constituents such as electrons, atoms or molecules. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe book is clearly written and essentially self-consistent thanks to the first chapter and the appendices, where the main required notions of classical and quantum mechanics, as well as of thermodynamics, are briefly recollected. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe presentation is more concentrated on physical aspects, rather than on formalism, thus being poorly demanding on the mathematical side, always trying to provide an intuitive physical motivation for the explanation of the phenomena. With the aid of excurses a few mathematical derivations and many practical applications and examples are worked out in detail. Also a well chosen list of references including both articles and books is given for readers interested in further study. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe topics covered, apart from the foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics, include applications to gases, fluids, crystals, solutions and macromolecules such as polymers. The study of systems not too far from equilibrium is also considered, phenomenologically introducing transport coefficients, Onsager's relation, fluctuation dissipation theorem and the theory of linear transport.

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