Abstract
In the previous chapter the basic concepts of the microcanonical ensemble, which describes a system whose energy is constant, have been analyzed. The entropy is the thermodynamic potential associated to this ensemble. The microcanonical ensemble presents two types of difficulties. The first one is mathematical since, even in the simplest systems, determining the entropy is not a trivial issue. The second difficulty is that the systems studied in thermodynamics are, in general, not isolated. Note that, for instance, thermal equilibrium is attained when two systems exchange energy. In this chapter the statistical physics of systems whose energy is variable is analyzed.
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Further Reading
K. Huang, Statistical Mechanics (Wiley, New York, 1987). Contains a good first introduction to quantum statistical physics.
L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz, Statistical Physics, 3rd ed. (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1989). More difficult to read but covers a very large number of topics.
L.E. Reichl, A Modern Course in Statistical Physics, 2nd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1998). Contains an alternative derivation of the Gibbs ensembles.
N.W. Ashcroft, N.D. Mermin, Solid State Physics (Saunders, Philadelphia, 1976). Contains a detailed study of the phonon gas, whose notation was followed here.
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Baus, M., Tejero, C.F. (2021). Canonical Ensemble. In: Equilibrium Statistical Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75432-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75432-7_5
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