Thermal Physics
Keywords:
Thermal Physics, Thermodynamics, Kinetic Theory, Entropy, Superfluidity, SemiconductorsSynopsis
Thermal Physics is a beautiful, subtle and difficult subject. To gain an understanding of thermal physics it is convenient to treat problems with varying degrees of sophistication, and with several complementary approaches. Our emphasis is to illustrate the principles with specific problems, rather than rigorous formalism. Problems are solved from the points of view of kinetic theory (Chapters 1, 7 and 8), statistical mechanics of closed systems (Chapter 2), statistical mechanics of open systems (Chapters 3 and 4), and thermodynamics (Chapter 6). These approaches sometimes lead to the same results, and sometimes lead to results that vary in generality, rigor and predictive power. It is fascinating to discover so many relationships among such different approaches to thermal physics. The relation between entropy and information is remarkable. Applications include superfluidity, semiconductors, cosmology and astrophysics.
Chapters
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Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION TO KINETIC THEORY
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Chapter 2. STATISTICAL MECHANICS
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Chapter 3. THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
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Chapter 4. DIFFUSIVE EQUILIBRIUM
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Chapter 5. WORK AND HEAT
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Chapter 6. THERMODYNAMICS
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Chapter 7. TRANSPORT
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Chapter 8. KINETIC THEORY
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Chapter 9. LOW TEMPERATURE PHYSICS
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Chapter 10. FLUCTUATIONS, INFORMATION AND NOISE
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Chapter 11. SEMICONDUCTORS
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Chapter 12. COSMOLOGY
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Chapter 13. ASTROPHYSICS
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PROBLEMS
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Appendix A: HANDY INTEGRALS
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Appendix B: HANDY FORMULAS
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Index
