Bilkent University     Department of Physics

PHYS 552 - STATISTICAL MECHANICS
and
MSN 509 - STATISTICAL THERMODYNAMICS


Semester:Spring 2009
Instructor: Cemal Yalabik
Office: Room SA-228
Office Hours: Tuesdays15:40 - 16:30 Room SA-228
All other times (if available -
call 1316 to check)  
Room EA-G11
Assistant: Basak Renklioglu Office: SA-203
Homework: Policy Assignments
Exams & Grading: (You can prepare notes on a single sheet of paper to bring to the exam.)
First Exam 25% 8:40, March 25 SA-Z03
Second Exam 25% 10:40, April 24 SA-Z03
Final Exam 35% 15:30, May 25 SA-Z04
Homework15%
Course Schedule:
Wednesday 9:40 - 10:30Room SA-Z03
Friday 10:40 - 12:30Room SA-Z03
Textbook:
Statistical Mechanics by K. Huang

Homework for this week: There will be weekly homework assignments in this course. Homework is due on the Tuesday of the following week at 10:45, in class, before class starts.

You can view your grades through the Stars system. You are also encouraged to discuss course related matters in the "student-forum" for this course at the same address.



Distribution functions and their transformations Non-equilibrium processes Basic thermodynamics, the concept of entropy Boltzmann transport equation The H-function Introductory transport theory Exam, Introduction to classical statistical mechanics
Classical statistical mechanics - the ensembles The partition function Quantum statistical mechanics: the partition function Review and Second Exam
Week Subject Exam #1 #2 The Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions The Ising model The Ising model and phase transitions