Abstract
In the previous chapters we have reviewed the fundamental properties of the radiation field and those of atomic systems. Before we move on to a quantum description of the interaction between these systems, is it necessary to study, in all generality, their physical characteristics in the particular case of thermodynamic equilibrium. On the one hand this study is interesting by itself, since in many cases the physical systems (whether they are the object of laboratory experiments or astronomical observations) can be considered, at least in first approximation, in conditions close to those of thermodynamic equilibrium. On the other hand, the laws that can be derived, being based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, are extremely general and can therefore provide very useful control methods to test any theory (more or less approximate), that can be used for the description of the systems and their interactions.
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If the solution of the stationary Schrödinger equation involves degenerate eigenvalues, the corresponding states must all be individually numbered in the series E 1,E 2,…,E n ,….
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Recalling the considerations of Sect. 4.2, such quantities can be expressed as a function of the coefficients \(c_{{\mathbf{k}}\lambda}^{\phantom{*}}\) and \(c_{{\mathbf{k}}\lambda}^{*}\), as well as the frequency (or wavenumber).
References
Schrödinger, E.: Statistical Thermodynamics. Heinemann, London (1961)
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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Italia
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Landi Degl’Innocenti, E. (2014). Laws of Thermodynamic Equilibrium. In: Atomic Spectroscopy and Radiative Processes. UNITEXT for Physics. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2808-1_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2808-1_10
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