Applications of Boltzmann Statistics

Abstract

In this chapter we want to show how what we have learned up to now can also be applied to quantum mechanical systems. However, this is not a truly quantum statistical consideration which takes into account the indistinguishability of the quantum mechanical particles. Those considerations will be introduced in part III of this book. However, some important statements which also remain true in quantum statistics can already be derived with the aid of the canonical distribution. This shall be demonstrated for the example of a set of N quantum mechanical harmonic oscillators. The energy eigenvalues of a quantum mechanical harmonic oscillator are well-known from Volume 4 of this series: