| PHYS 552 - STATISTICAL MECHANICS |
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| Semester: | Spring 2026 | |||
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| Instructor: | Cemal Yalabık | |||
| Office: | Room SA-228 | Phone 1316 | ||
| Office Hours: | Fridays | 13:00 - 14:00 | Room SA-228 | |
| All other times | (if available - call 1316 to check) | |||
| Assistant: | Yılmaz Can Yüksek | |||
| About the course: | This is one of the core courses in our graduate curriculum. The material in the indicated textbooks will closely be followed throughout the course. | |||
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| Homework: | Policy | Assignments | ||
| Exams & Grading: | "Cheat sheets" will not be allowed during the exams, but you will be provided with sufficient information for solving the problems without memorization. | |||
| There is an attendance requirement for this course: A student may not miss more than 6 hours of class or recitation in order to pass the course. Further absences may be compensated by completing assignments which will take much longer time than the corresponding class time. | ||||
| The way I grade core graduate courses | ||||
| First Exam | % | Tuesday, March 3 | 10:30 - 12:20 (Room ) | |
| Second Exam | % | Tuesday, April 14 | 10:30 - 12:20 (Room ) | |
| Final Exam | % | ?? | ??:00 - ??:00 | |
| Homework | % | |||
| Course Schedule: | ||||
| First meeting: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 10:30 - 12:20 in Room | ||||
| Tuesdays | 10:30 - 12:20 | Room | ||
| Thursdays | 15:30 - 16:20 | Room | ||
| Recitation: | Thursdays | 16:30 - 17:20 | Room | |
| Textbooks: | ||||
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Statistical Mechanics by K. Huang
Statistical Physics of Particles M. Kardar Statistical Physics of Fields M. Kardar | ||||
You can view your grades through the Stars system.
| Week (Monday) | Subject | Huang | Kardar | Exam | Basic thermodynamics, the concept of entropyChapter 1 | Chapter P1 Distribution functions and their transformations | Chapter P2 Non-equilibrium processes | Boltzmann transport equation | Chapter 3 | Chapter P3 The H-function | Chapter 4 | Chapter P3 Introductory transport theory | Chapter 5 | Chapter P3 First Exam | #1 | Classical statistical mechanics - the ensemblesChapter 6, 7 | Chapter P4 Spring Break + Holiday week | The partition function | Chapter 9 | Quantum statistical mechanics: the Fermi Gas | Chapter 8, 11 | Chapter P6, P7 The Bose Gas | Chapter 12 | Chapter P7 Second Exam, The Ising model | Chapter 14 | Chapter F6 | #2 Phase transitions and critical phenomena | Chapter 16 | Chapter F1 Scaling and renormalization | Chapter 18 | Chapter F4 Scaling and renormalization | Chapter 18 | Chapter F4 | ||||||
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