Jul 05, 2025  
Rensselaer Catalog 2025-2026 
    
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Rensselaer Catalog 2025-2026
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PHYS 6590 - Statistical Mechanics

Review of thermodynamics, probability, and statistics. Statistical basis of thermodynamics, various ensembles, quantum statistics. Ideal Fermi and Bose gases and applications to solids and the black-body radiation. Interacting systems, phase transitions, and critical phenomena. Phase transition in the Van der Waals gas and in the Ising ferromagnet. Mean-field approximation and Landau theory of continuous phase transitions. Random walk, diffusion, Brownian motion, and Langevin equation. Stochastic processes.

Prerequisite: Prior knowledge of PHYS 4420  or equivalent.

Corequisite: PHYS 6510  

When Offered: FALL TERM ANNUALLY

Graded: GRADED

Credit Hours: 4


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