Details of PH2104 (Autumn 2025)
| Level: 2 | Type: Theory | Credits: 3.0 |
| Course Code | Course Name | Instructor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| PH2104 | Thermal Physics | Supratim Sengupta |
| Syllabus |
|---|
| Review of Thermodynamics: 0th, 1st, 2nd laws, Entropy, TdS relationships, Carnot cycle, Legendre transform and thermodynamic potentials, Gibbs phase rules, Gibbs free energy and phase
transitions. Statistical Mechanics: Introduction -- the need for a Statistical approach to thermodynamics. Random processes. Coin tossing and the drunkard's walk. Binomial distribution. Stirling's approximation for the factorial. The normal distribution. Boltzmann's hypothesis S = k logW . Application to a system of non-interacting spins. Identical particles and indistinguishability. Counting of distributions for noninteracting distinguishable and indistinguishable particles, Derivation of the Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics. Simple Applications of MB, FD and BE statistics. |
| References |
|---|
| H. B. Callen, Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics, Wiley (1985)
A. M. Glazer and J. C. Wark, Statistical Mechanics : A Survival Guide, Oxford University Press (2001) D. V. Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Addison-Wesley (1999) |
Course Credit Options
| Sl. No. | Programme | Semester No | Course Choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IP | 1 | Not Allowed |
| 2 | IP | 3 | Not Allowed |
| 3 | IP | 5 | Not Allowed |
| 4 | MP | 1 | Not Allowed |
| 5 | MP | 3 | Not Allowed |
| 6 | MR | 1 | Not Allowed |
| 7 | MR | 3 | Not Allowed |
| 8 | MS | 3 | Core |
| 9 | MS | 5 | Not Allowed |
| 10 | MS | 7 | Not Allowed |
| 11 | MS | 9 | Not Allowed |
| 12 | RS | 1 | Not Allowed |
| 13 | RS | 2 | Not Allowed |