Fandamentals of STATISTICAL MECHANICS B.B. LAUD Gormerly Wiley Eastern Limited) New Delhi « Bangalore « Chennai + Guwahati « Hyderabad NEW AGE INTERNATIONAL (P) LIMITED, PUBLISHERS Jalandhar * Kolkata * Lucknow * Mumbai * RanchiCopyright © 1998, New Age International (P) Ltd,, Publishers Published by New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers First Edition: 1998 Reprint: 2007 All rights reserved. ‘No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the copyright owner. ISBN : 81-224-1160-6 Rs. 175.00 C-07-05-1534 TESIWOMN 12 (314 Printed in India at A.P, Offset, Delhi, PUBLISHING FOR ONE WORLD NEWAGE INTERNATIONAL (P) LIMITED, PUBLISHERS (formerly Wiley Eastern Lirated) AVIZIMA Ang Resart Darvavani New Nelhi- 119002Preface « Statistical mechanics is an indispensable formalism in the study of physical properties of matter in bulk. St has led to a better understanding of foundations of thermodynamics and is a very elegant mathematical framework capable of preseniing a clear picture of many a physical phenomena, Basic knowledge of this subject is, therefore, essential for every student of physics, whatever may be the field of his specialization, Though several excclicnt accounts have been written on the subject, many of them are cither too brief or (oo highly mathematical. Hence, there appears to be a need for an up-to-date, compact and inexpensive book on statistical mechanics, treating the subject in an introductory manner, specially adapted for the beginner in the ficld and aiso to those who require a modest working knowledge of this subject because of its application to other fields. The desire to meet this situation gave me an incentive in 1981 to write the book Introduction to Statistical Mechanics. During the decade that has passed since its appearance, the book was widcly used and well-received by students and teachers who made very useful comments and offered suggestions for ils improvement, Keeping these in mind, I decided to rewrite the book and amplify it considerably. Although the framework of the cartier book hay been retained, in this new book most of the sections have been re-writien and expanded. In Chap 11, theories of phase transitlons have been discussed along with their range of validity. Other topic such as chemical equilibrium and Saha‘ionization formula have also been included in this chapter. The method used by Maxwell before the advent of Gibbs statistics, to derive his velocity distribulion has been described in Chap 3 to satisfy student's curiosity, A chapter on Basic concepts of Probability has been included which is of auxiliary nature and may be omitted by thone who are acquainted with tho theory of probability. . ‘ I have been very selective in the choice of topios to be included. The emphasis is on the fundamentals together with aome instructive and useful applications. In a book of this size it has not been possible to deal exhaustively with all applications. Some typical cases have been selected with all applications. Some typical cases have becn tibed so that all the impoi methods of dealing J An Altamnt hac heen made Pe epeaoeonveeoeaeaenene280 600088 08 08,