Instructor: Professor
V. J. Goldman
office: B-137 (Physics) ;
telephone 2-9001
office hours: Monday, Thursday 3:30-4:30 and
drop by
email: Vladimir.Goldman@StonyBrook.edu
TA:
Yuan Sun,
edii2007@gmail.com
office hours: B-130 Monday 2:00-3:00, Tuesday 3:00-4:00 and
by
appointment
Text: C. Kittel and H. Kroemer,
Thermal Physics (second edition), Freeman & Co., 1994
Additional
reading: F. Reif, Fundamentals
of Statistical and Thermal Physics,
McGraw-Hill, 1991
Course
organization and grading:
- Two 1.5
hour lectures per week (P-112, TuTh 8:20 - 9:40 am)
- Homeworks will be posted on
Tuesdays, due next week Tuesday in class
- Late HW:
in B-137 only (slide under the door, if closed), not in mailbox, not to
TA
- Late HW
penalty: 20% per day, so that model solutions can be
posted promptly
- Exams:
Midterm (Th, March 13, in class) and Final (Tu, May 20,
8:30-10:30 am)
- Exams are
closed book, except for "things to remember" page
- Course
grade = 45% HW + 20% Midterm + 35% Final
- There is
no provision for doing extra or outside work to improve your grade
Course outline:
1. Basics of probability
2. Entropy and temperature in isolated systems
3. Boltzmann distribution and partition function
4. Photons: thermal radiation and Plank distribution
5. Phonons in solids
6. Chemical potential; Gibbs sum
7. Classical ideal gas
8. Quantum Fermi gas; electrons in metals
9. Quantum Bose gas; Bose-Einstein condensation
10. Heat engines and refrigerators; Carnot cycle
Material will
be presented primarily of lectures, readings assignments from the text,
and
homework
problems.
Lecture will cover the material to be learned, some important examples,
and will direct
your study from the text,
however some material will be presented in
class that is not in the text.
Thus, you should attend class, pay
attention
while there, and take notes over the material.
You should plan on 1.5-2
hours of study outside of class for every hour in lecture.
The material
in the latter part of the course will be based upon material presented
in the first part of the course,
therefore you will have to commit the
material to long term memory. The Final exam is comprehensive.
Working
together:
Students are encouraged to study in small groups, discuss the material
and HW problems.
It should be perfectly clear that each person is responsible for
completing and submitting the work.
It is NOT acceptable to divide the problems, when one solves problem 1
and the other problem 2.
Exchange of any information between the students during an exam is
unacceptable.
Note: If you have a disability that may affect your
ability to carry out the assigned course work,
you are urged to contact
the staff of the Disabled student Services, Room 133, Humanities.
DSS
will review your concerns with you and determine what accommodations
are
necessary and appropriate.
All information and documentation of
disability is confidential and will not be shared with faculty.