Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics from Beginner to Expert

Course Curriculum

Chapter 1: Introduction & Physical background

Lecture 1: Overview of the course

Lecture 2: Classical mechanics background

Lecture 3: Newton's laws of motion

Lecture 4: Energy conservation law

Lecture 5: Hamiltonian mechanics

Lecture 6: What about statistical physics?

Lecture 7: Section summary

Lecture 8: Download the structure of this course

Lecture 9: Slides of this section

Chapter 2: [Optional] Mathematical background: Stochastics

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: Probability & Tree diagrams for coin flip experiments

Lecture 3: Event & Counter event in a dice experiment

Lecture 4: Expectation values for coin, dice & urn problems

Lecture 5: Calculating probabilities: Urn problems

Lecture 6: Binomial distribution

Lecture 7: Discussion of the binomial distribution

Lecture 8: Normal distribution (Gaussian distribution)

Lecture 9: Poisson distribution

Lecture 10: Section outro

Lecture 11: [Exercises] Stochastics

Lecture 12: [Solution] Task 1 – Probabilities

Lecture 13: [Solution] Task 2 – Probabilities

Lecture 14: [Solution] Task 3 – Probabilities

Lecture 15: Slides of this section

Chapter 3: From microstates to the partition function of canonical ensembles

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: Microstates

Lecture 3: Microstates versus macrostates

Lecture 4: Example: Statistical treatment of the harmonic oscillator

Lecture 5: Microcanonical ensemble

Lecture 6: Canonical ensemble

Lecture 7: Probability of the canonical ensemble

Lecture 8: Partition function

Lecture 9: Example: Kinetic energy of a gas – Definition of the temperature

Lecture 10: Example: Kinetic energy of a gas – Maxwell velocity distribution

Lecture 11: [Exercise] Barometric height formula

Lecture 12: [Solution] Potential energy of a gas – Barometric formula

Lecture 13: Equivalence of canonical and microcanonical ensemble in the thermodynamic limit

Lecture 14: Summary: Canonical and microcanonical ensembles

Lecture 15: Section outro

Lecture 16: Optional add-on: Quantum statistics example: Quantum harmonic oscillator

Lecture 17: Optional add-on: Liouville equation

Lecture 18: Slides of this section

Chapter 4: Laws of thermodynamics & Thermodynamic potentials

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: First law of thermodynamics

Lecture 3: Thermodynamic work

Lecture 4: Pressure

Lecture 5: Second law of thermodynamics

Lecture 6: Entropy

Lecture 7: Third law of thermodynamics

Lecture 8: [Exercise] Entropy of a die

Lecture 9: [Solution] Entropy of a die

Lecture 10: Example: Entropy of a black hole

Lecture 11: Internal energy U as a thermodynamic potential

Lecture 12: Helmholtz free energy F

Lecture 13: Enthalpy H

Lecture 14: Gibbs free energy G

Lecture 15: Maxwell relations

Lecture 16: Section summary: Thermodynamic square

Lecture 17: Slides of this section

Chapter 5: Thermodynamics of gases

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: Ideal gas

Lecture 3: Thermodynamic processes

Lecture 4: Isentropic processes

Lecture 5: Heat capacity

Lecture 6: Compressibility

Lecture 7: Thermal expansion

Lecture 8: Application: Thermodynamic cycles

Lecture 9: Efficiency of thermodynamic cycles

Lecture 10: Carnot cycle

Lecture 11: Real gas

Lecture 12: Slides of this section

Lecture 13: Section outro

Chapter 6: Phase transitions in Landau theory

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: Phase transitions

Lecture 3: Landau theory

Lecture 4: Example: 2nd-order phase transition in Landau theory

Lecture 5: Example: 1st-order phase transition in Landau theory

Lecture 6: Slides of this section

Lecture 7: Section outro

Chapter 7: Grand canonical ensemble: Open systems with variable number of particles

Lecture 1: Section intro

Lecture 2: Partition function of the grand (macro) canonical ensemble

Lecture 3: Grand canonical potential & Entropy

Lecture 4: Non-interacting quantum gas

Lecture 5: Quantum statistics: Bosons versus fermions

Lecture 6: Fermions: Fermi-Dirac statistics

Lecture 7: Bosons: Bose-Einstein statistics