PHYS 5460 - Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics

Continuation of PHYS 5450. Quantum mechanics topics include indistinguishable particles, multi-electron atoms, solids, variational principle, time-dependent perturbation theory, and radiation. Statistical mechanics topics include binomial, Gaussian, Poisson distributions, statistical definition of entropy; microcanonical, canonical, Gibbs canonical and grand canonical ensembles, Boltzmann distribution and partition function; Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, black body radiation, electron Fermi gas in metals, Bose-Einstein condensation, phase transitions, mean field approximation in magnetism, Ising model. Recommended Prerequisites: PHYS 5450.