Practice Problems: SET 3

Course: PH 307
Satistical Mechanics

August 29, 2017

1.Consider an ensembles of classical one dimensional harmonic oscillators.

(a) Let the displacement x of an oscillator as a function of t is x = A cos(t + ). Assume
that the phase angle is equally likely to lie in the range between and + d is then simply
w()d = d 2 . For any fixed time t, find the probability P (x)dx that x lies between x and x + dx
by summing w()d over all angles for which x lies in this range. Express P (x) in terms of A
and x.
(b) Consider the classical phase space for such an ensemble of oscillators, their energy being
known to lie in the small range between E and E + E. Calculate P (x)dx by taking the ratio of
that volume of phase space lying in this energy range and in the range between x and x + dx to
the total volume of phase space lying in the energy range range between E and E + E. Express
P (x) in terms of E and x. By relating E to A, show that the result is the same as that obtained
in (a).

2. Consider an isolated system consisting of a large number N of very weakly interacting localized
particles of spin 1/2. Each particle has a magnetic moment which can point either parallel or
anti-parallel to an applied field H. The energy E of the system is then E = (n1 n2 )H, where
n1 is the number of spins aligned parallel to H and n2 the number of spins aligned anti-parallel
to H.
(a) Consider the energy range between E and E + E where E is very small compared to E
but microscopically large so that E << H. What is the total number of states (E) lying in
this energy range?
(b) Write down an expression for ln (E) as a function of E. Simplify this expression by applying
Stirlings formula in its simplest form.
(c) Calculate temperature. Express energy in terms of temperature and magnetic field.

3. Calculate the surface area of a N dimensional sphere.

4. Consider the thermal interaction between two systems A, A0 . Find the probability P (E) of
finding the total system to be in a microstate such that the system A has energy between E and
E + E when the whole system is in equilibrium.
Take a small deviation << 1 of the equilibrium energy of A, i.e. E = E + . Expand
the probability P (E) around the equilibrium energy and retain upto 2 term. Show that the
probability distribution reduces to Gaussian one.
Show that the standard deviation is of the order Ef where f is the degrees of freedom of the
systems.

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5. Consider two spin systems A and A0 placed in an external field H. System A consists of N
weakly interacting localized particles of spin 1/2 and magnetic moment . Similarly, system A0
consists of N 0 weakly interacting localized particles of spin 1/2 and magnetic moment 0 . Two
systems are initially isolated with respective total energies E = bN H and E 0 = b0 N 0 0 H. They
are placed in thermal contact with each other (|b| << 1, |b0 | << 1).
(a) In the most probable situation corresponding to the final thermal equilibrium , how is the
energy E of system A related to the energy E 0 of system A0 ?
(b) What is the value of the energy E of system A?
(c) What is the heat Q absorbed by the system A in going from the initial situation to the final
situation when it is in equilibrium with A0 ?