Contents › Part 12

Part 12 — Statistical Mechanics

1. Statistical Mechanics
   • From mechanics to thermodynamics
   • Entropy and the Boltzmann principle
   • Ensembles
   • The classical ideal gas
   • The thermodynamic limit
   • The ergodic hypothesis: status
   • Fluctuations
   • Entropy, information and inference
2. Experiment: Brownian Motion and Avogadro's Number experiment
   • Historical context and the prediction under test
   • Apparatus
   • Procedure
   • Observations
   • Interpretation
   • Mathematical aftermath
   • Modern repetitions and precision
3. Quantum Statistics
   • Indistinguishability
   • The two distributions
   • The ideal Bose gas
   • The ideal Fermi gas
   • Degenerate matter in astrophysics
   • Correlations as direct evidence
   • Beyond the two statistics
4. Experiment: Bose–Einstein Condensation experiment
   • The prediction under test
   • Apparatus
   • Procedure
   • Observations
   • Interpretation
   • Repetitions, extensions and precision
5. Quantum Optics and the Photon
   • The quantized radiation field
   • Photon statistics
   • Coherence
   • Antibunching and single photons
   • Squeezed light
   • Cavity quantum electrodynamics
   • The laser
   • Zewail: femtosecond probing of the transition state (1987)
   • Which-path information and the quantum eraser
6. Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena
   • Phases and phase diagrams
   • The liquid–gas transition
   • The Ising model
   • Mean-field theory and order parameters
   • Critical exponents, scaling and universality
   • Lower critical dimension and topological order
   • Liquid crystals
7. Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics and Transport
   • The kinetic route
   • Linear irreversible thermodynamics
   • Thermoelectricity
   • Brownian motion and stochastic dynamics
   • Linear response and fluctuation–dissipation
   • Fluctuation theorems
8. Phonons and Lattice Dynamics
   • The crystal lattice
   • Experiment: the lattice made visible
   • Heat capacity of solids
   • Lattice dynamics
   • Measured dispersion relations
   • Anharmonicity
9. Electrons in Solids: Band Theory
   • The free-electron metal
   • Electrons in a periodic potential
   • Band structure and the classification of solids
   • Semiclassical dynamics of Bloch electrons
   • The Fermi surface and how it is measured
   • Transport and scattering
   • Where the one-electron picture fails
10. Semiconductors
    • What a semiconductor is
    • Carriers and their statistics
    • Junctions and rectification
    • Devices
    • Light and semiconductors
    • Low-dimensional semiconductors
11. Experiment: The Quantum Hall Effect experiment
    • Historical context and the prediction under test
    • Apparatus
    • Procedure
    • Observations
    • Interpretation
    • Later measurements and precision
    • Metrology: the ohm and the SI
12. Magnetism in Matter
    • The magnetic response of matter
    • Where the moments come from
    • Ferromagnetism
    • Antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism
    • Domains and hysteresis
    • Spin waves
    • Magnetic phase transitions
    • Magnetic resonance
    • Magnetotransport and spintronics
13. Superconductivity and Superfluidity
    • Discovery and phenomenology
    • Phenomenological electrodynamics
    • Microscopic theory
    • Macroscopic quantum coherence
    • Superconductors beyond the BCS regime
    • Superfluid helium-4
    • Superfluid helium-3
    • Where the phenomena reappear
14. Experiment: Superconductivity experiment
    • Historical context and the claim under test
    • Apparatus
    • Procedure
    • Observations
    • Interpretation
    • Modern repetitions and precision
15. Experiment: Neutron Scattering and the Structure of Solids experiment
    • Why the neutron, and not the X-ray
    • Shull and Smart: antiferromagnetic order in MnO (1949)
    • Brockhouse and Stewart: phonons in aluminium (1955)
    • Brockhouse: spin waves in magnetite (1957)
    • Brockhouse and Iyengar: the normal modes of germanium (1958)
    • The Debye–Waller factor, measured on the same patterns
    • What the neutron settled
    • Hodgkin, Hauptman and Karle, and Klug: the phase problem (1934–1969)