PHYS 2163 - Statistical Physics 2

Second Long Exam

(March 21, 2014)

1. Stirlings Approximation. Prove Stirlings approximation

A. Show that for N >> 1,
1
ln(N !) (N )ln(N ) N + ln(2N )
2

(1)

B. Show that this agrees with the formula

1

N ! (2N ) 2 N N eN

(2)

2. Poisson Distribution. The probability W (n) that an event characterized by a probability p occurs n times in N trials was shown to be given
by the binomial distribution
W (n) =

N!
pn (1 p)N n
n!(N n)!

(3)

Consider a situation where the probability p is small (p << 1) and where

one is interested in the case n << N . (Note that if N is large, W (n)
becomes very small if n N because of the smallness of the factor pn
when p << 1. Hence W (n) is indeed only appreciable when n << N .)
Several approximation can then be made to reduce (3) to simpler form.
A. Using the result ln(1 p) p, show that (1 p)N 1 eN p
B. Show that

N!
(N n)!

Nn

C. Hence show that (3) reduces to

W (n) =

n
e
n!

(4)

where = N p is the mean number of events. The distribution (4) is called

the Poisson distribution
Show that the Poisson distribution is normalized
3. An ideal monatomic gas is in thermal equilibrium at room temperature T
so that the molecular velocity distribution is Maxwellian.
A. If v denotes the speed of a molecule, calculate 1/v. Compare this
with 1/
v.
B. Find the mean number of molecules per unit volume whose energy
lies in the range between  and  + d
1

4. Ising model. Consider one dimensional chain of N spin. The hamiltonian

for this particular system is given by,
H = J

si si+1 h

si

(5)

where si si+1 describes the interaction between two neighbouring spins

each having a spin si = 1 or si = 1 for particle with spin up and
spin down respectively, J describes the exchange interaction and h is the
magnetic field.
A. Consider a case where applied magnetic field is zero. Determine
the partition function for (A.1) 2 interacting spins, (A.2) 3 spins, and
(A.3) N spins.
B. Consider N spins system, determine the (B.1) Helmholtz free energy and the (B.2) entropy.
5. Random Walk. Consider the random walk problem in one dimension,
the probability of a displacement between s and s + ds being
w(s) ds =

1
(2 2 )

1
2

(sl)2
2 2

ds

(6)

After N steps
A. What is the mean displacement x
from the origin?
B. What is the dispersion (x x
)2 ?
6. Ultrarelativistic gas. A classical ultrarelativistic gas consists of particles whose mass is negligible and move at the speed of light c. Consider N
ultrarelativistic gas in canonical ensemble. The Hamiltonian for N-particle
ultrarelativistic gas is given by

H=

N
X

c pk

(7)

k=1

A. Obtain the partition function for the ultrarelativistic gas.

B. Obtain (B.1) internal energy, (B.2) heat capacity at constant volume, (B.3) entropy, (B.4) Helmholtz free energy, (B.5) chemical potential.