Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal

Home Assignment 5
PHY 306/604
Statistical Mechanics

Duration: .... ... Marks

1. Consider a quantum mechanical gas of non-interacting spin zero bosons

each of mass m which are free to move within volume V .

a) Find an expression for the density single particle states D() as a func-
tion of the single particle energy . Sketch the results.

b) Write down an expression for the mean occupation number of a single

particle state n¯ as function of  and T and the chemical potential µ(T ).
Draw this function on your sketch in part a) for a moderately high temper-
ature, this is a temperature above the Bose-Einstein transition. Indicate
the place on  axis  = µ.

c) Write down an integral expression which implicitly determines µ(T ).

Referring to your sketch in a) determine in which direction µ(T ) moves as
T is lowered.

2. Imagine the universe to be spherical cavity with the radius of 1027 m and
impentrable walls.
a) It the temperature inside the cavity is 3K estimate the total number
of photons in the universe and the energy content in these photons.

b) If the temperature were 0 K and the universe contained 1080 electrons

in the fermi distribution calculate the momentum of the electrons.

3. An n dimensional universe. In our three dimensional universe, the follow-

ing are well known results from the statistical mechanics and the thermo-
dynamics. a) The energy density u ∝ T α where α = 4.

b) In the Debye model of a solid the specific heat at low temperature T β

with β = 3
c) The ratio of the specific heat at constant pressure to the specific heat
at constant volume for a mono-atomic ideal gas is γ = 5/3.

1
 Derive the analogous results (i.e. γ, α and β) in the universe with the n
dimensions.
4. A one dimensional lattice consists of linear array of N particles N >> 1
interacting via spring like nearest
p neighbour forces. The normal mode
frequencies are given by ωn = ω̄ [2(1 − cos(2πn/N ))]. Where ω̄ is the a
constant and n is integer ranging from −N/2 to N/2. The system is in
the thermal equilibrium at temperature T . Let cv be the specific heat at
constant volume.
a) Compute the cv for the regime T → ∞.
b) For the T → 0
5. In a perfect gas of electrons the mean number of particles occuping a single
particle quantum state of energy of the energy Ei is :

1
Ni = (1)
exp( EkiB−µ
T ) +1
a) Obtain a formula which could be used to determine µ in terms of the
particle density n and various constants.
b) Show that the above expression reduces to the Maxwell-Boltzmann dis-
tribution in the limit of nλ3 << 1 where λ is the thermal wave length.

c) Sketch Ni versus Ei for T = 0 and T = µ/5. Label the significant

points along the x axis.

6. Density of states D(E) in metal and EF is the Fermi energy. At the Fermi
energy D(EF ) 6= 0 a) Give an expression for the total number of the elec-
trons in the system at temperature T = 0 in terms of the EF and D(EF ).
b) Give an expression for the total number of the electrons in the system
at temperature T 6= 0 in terms of the µ and D(EF ).

c) Calculate the chemical potential at low temperature µ >> kB T .

7. Show that for the ideal Fermi gas the Helmholtz free energy per particle
at low temperature is given by,
" 2 #
5π 2 kB T

3
F/N = F 1 − (2)
5 12 F

8. Obtain equation of state of the ideal Bose gas in the form of the virial
expansion.
9. Write down the average no of photons in a given energy state. Find the
root mean square fluctuation in the number of photons of the mode fre-
quency ω in a cavity ? is it always smaller than the average number of

2
the photons in the mode?