Statistical Physics - PH 571 Fall 2024

Homework 2

Due date: 02/13/2024

Please send me your solutions per email. Do not use the solution manual. List explicitly any
sources or other input you used for your solution (books, lecture notes, conversations
with other students etc.)

1: Warm up questions

(a) Find the independent variables, the dependent variables (obtained via differentiation)
and the Maxwell relations for the Landau free energy Ω = E − T S − µN .
(b) Find the figure of merit ω for the ”Carnot refrigerator” (Carnot engine run backwards).
(c) Using the extensivity of the internal energy E(λS, λV, λN ) = λE(S, V, N ), the first law
of thermodynamics, and the exercise on homogeneous functions on homework set 1,
show that E = T S − pV + µN and SdT − V dp + N dµ = 0. The latter equation is
known as the Gibbs-Duhem relation. It states that the intensive variables T , p, and µ
cannot be varied independently.

2: Problem 4 of chapter 1 of Kardar’s book

Work through the solution to problem 4 in chapter 1 of Kardar’s book. Write your own
version, where you work out all details. Among other things, Kardar’s solution contains a
concise derivation of the relation ∂E/∂V |T = T ∂p/∂V |V − p based on a Maxwell relation
(we derived the relation for ∂E/∂V in class, but had to work a bit harder since we did not
know about Maxwell relations yet).

3: Problem 8 in chapter 1 of Kardar’s book: Hard-core gas

4: Problem 11 in chapter 1 of Kardar’s book: Irreversible processes

5: Cycles
Find the efficiency η and plot the p−V diagrams for two cycles with the ideal gas [pV = nRT ,
and E = nRT /(γ − 1)] as a working material: (a) a cycle consisting of two isotherms and
two isochores, and (b) a cycle consisting two adiabats and two isochores. In the case (b),
the efficiency is defined as η = W/Q, where W is the total work, and Q is the heat intake
during the isochoric heating; express η in terms of the ratio of the two volumes (compression
ratio) in this case.