This is the second in a series of two courses on Statistical Physics
which are required for all Graduate Students in Physics.

Prerequisites:  Physics 846 (or equivalent)
Specifically, I will assume that students are familiar with thermodynamics and with
Statistical Mechanics concepts such as the microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical
ensembles; entropy, Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies, chemical potential; classical ideal gas,
Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions.                   

Text Book: Equilibrium Statistical Physics by M. Plischke and B. Bergersen,
                  3rd Edition, (World Scientific, 2006). 

Syllabus:
                    Bose-Einstein condensation
                    Phase transitions
                    Mean field theory
                    Critical phenomena and scaling
                    Elementary ideas about renormalization group

        Time permitting, I will also cover additional topics like:
                    Monte Carlo simulations
                    Linear response theory

Course Grades:
                    Home Work:          30%
                    Mid-Term Exam:    30%
                    Final Exam:            40%

Exam Dates:
                    Mid Term: Tuesday, May 5, in class
                    Final Exam: Thursday, June 11, 9:30 - 11:30 am
                                       (as announced in the University Final Exam Schedule)

Mid Term Results:   average = 77/100
                                std. dev. = 19
                                9 students (out of 31) got > 90%

Course Information: CourseInfo.pdf  Syllabus, Text, Exam Schedule, etc

Home Work:

Problem Set #1: hw1.pdf  (due: Apr. 14) [see also: pictures for HW#1 pictures.ppt]
Problem Set #2: hw2.pdf  (both HW's #1 and 2 are due on Tuesday, Apr. 14)
Problem Set #3: hw3.pdf  (due: Tue. 4/21/09)
Problem Set #4: hw4.pdf  (due: Tue. 4/28/09)
Problem Set #5: hw5.pdf  (due: Tue. 5/19/09)
Problem Set #6: hw6.pdf  (due: Tue. 6/2/09)

Grader:  Nicolas Bock (bock-garcia.1@osu.edu)

Office Hours:  to be announced

If you have any questions, please contact me:

Office: Physics Research Building, Room 2024
Phone: 292 2457
Email: randeria@mps.ohio-state.edu