Basics of Statistical Mechanics

• Review of ensembles
• Microcanonical, canonical, Maxwell-Boltzmann
• Constant pressure, temperature, volume,…
• Thermodynamic limit
• Ergodicity (see online notes also)
• Reading assignment: Frenkel and Smit pgs. 1-22.

Content:

• The Fundamentals according to Newton “Molecular Dynamics”
• Statistical Ensembles
• Environment
• Interaction with environment: E= E₁ + E₂
• Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution
• Thermodynamic limit
• Ergodicity
• Different aspects of Ergodicity
• Particle in a smooth/rough circle
• Fermi- Pasta- Ulam “experiment” (1954)
• Distribution of normal modes
• Distribution of normal modes vs time-steps
• How do you judge if your results converged?
• Continuum of dynamical methods with different dynamics and ensembles

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• David M. Ceperley (2009), "Illinois PHYS 466, Lecture 3: Basics of Statistical Mechanics," http://nanohub.org/resources/6198.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. course lecture
2. Illinois
3. material properties
4. materials
5. materials science