QUALIFYING EXAMINATION, Part 4

Solutions

Problem 1: Statistical Mechanics I

(a) The classical single-particle partition function z is

Z Z ∞ Z ∞
dx dp −βE(p,x) 1 − βp
2  m 1/2 1
z= e = dp e 2m dx e−βV (x) = 3/2
e−βab .
2πh̄ 2πh̄ −∞ a 2π h̄bβ
The partition function of the N identical non-interacting particles is is given by
r N
zN 1 m 1 −βab
Z= = e .
N! N! 2π h̄bβ 3/2
The free energy is given by
p !
m/2π
F = −kB T ln Z ≈ −kB T N ln − N ln N + N + N ab
h̄bβ 3/2
p
e m/2π
= −N kB T ln + N ab .
h̄bβ 3/2 N

(b) If the wall moves by a small distance da, the work done by the gas is f da. At constant
temperature, this is equal to the decrease in the free energy, i.e., dF = −f da (more
generally dF = SdT − f da). We then have
 
∂F
f =− = −N b .
∂a T,N

−βV (x)
(c) The probability of finding a particle
R ∞ at x is proportional to e = e−βbx . The
density n(x) should be normalized, a n(x) = N , which gives

N b −βb(x−a)
n(x) = e .
kB T

(d) In terms of n(x = a), we have

f = −n(x = a)kB T .

This relation is the same as the ideal gas law in 1D, and it holds for any confining potential
V (x). One can see that this is the case by considering the gas in a small interval [x, x+∆x],

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where ∆x is sufficiently large compared to the mean distance between gas particles near
the wall, but much smaller than the length scale on which the potential varies. For such
a small interval the variation of the potential can be ignored and the gas should follow
the ideal gas law. Therefore f = −nkB T holds locally.
We can also derive this relation directly. For a general confining potential V (x), the
partition function is
 N/2 Z ∞ N
1 m −βV (x)
Z= dx e ,
N! 2πh̄2 β a

and it follows that the free energy is

 r  Z ∞ 
m −βV (x)
F = −kB T ln Z = −kB T N ln − ln N ! + N kB T ln dx e .
2πh̄2 β a

The force is then given by

e−βV (a)
 
∂F
f =− = −N kB T R ∞ .
∂a T,N a
dx e−βV (x)

Generalizing the calculation in (c), the density at x is

N e−βV (x)
n(x) = R ∞ .
a
dx e−βV (x)

Thus f = −n(a)kB T for any confining potential.

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 Problem 2: Statistical Mechanics II

(a) The energy spectrum of the 1D harmonic oscillator is n = h̄ω(n + 12 ), where n is

a non-negative integer. At T = 0, the single-species fermions occupy each level of the
harmonic oscillator up to F . Hence for N fermions
 
1
F = h̄ω N − .
2

(b) (i) The total energy at T = 0 is the sum of all single-particle energies up to F . Thus
∞ N −1 
h̄ω N 2

E 1 X h̄ω X 1 h̄ωN
= j hnj i = j+ = = .
N N j=0 N j=0 2 N 2 2

(ii) For the 1D harmonic oscillator, the states are equally spaced by h̄ω, and thus the
number of states of energy smaller than  is Ns () = /(h̄ω). It follows that the average
density of states is constant, g() = dNs /d = 1/h̄ω. In the continuum limit, the average
energy per particle is then
1 F 1 2F
Z
E N h̄ω
= g()d = ≈ .
N N 0 N 2h̄ω 2
Q∞
(c) The grand-canonical partition function is ZGC = n=0 ln(1 + e−β(h̄ω(n+1/2)−µ) ) (where
1/β = kB T ), so the grand potential is
∞
X
Ω(µ, T ) = −kB T ln[1 + e−β(h̄ω(n+1/2)−µ) ] .
n=0

(d) The average total particle number N̄ is

  ∞
∂Ω X 1
N̄ = − = β(h̄ω(n+1/2)−µ)
.
∂µ T n=0
e +1
P∞
This equation can also be obtained from N̄ = j=0 hnj i, where hnj i is the Fermi-Dirac
occupation number of level j.
(e) (i) The high-temperature regime corresponds to β → 0 and z → 0. In this case, the
EoS reads
∞
X ze−βh̄ω/2 z kT
lim N (µ, T ) = ze−βh̄ω(n+1/2) = −βh̄ω
≈ = z.
z→0 and β→0
n=0
1−e βh̄ω h̄ω

(ii) The limit in (i) is the classical limit.