Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Statistical Methods.- 2 Statistical Description of a Physical System.- 3 Overview of Classical Thermodynamics.- 4 Microcanonical Ensemble.- 5 Canonical Ensemble.- 6 The Classical Gas in the Canonical Formalism.- 7 The Grand Canonical and Pressure Ensembles.- 8 The Ideal Quantum Gas.- 9 The Ideal Fermi Gas.- 10 Free Bosons: Bose—Einstein Condensation; Photon Gas.- 11 Phonons and Magnons.- 12 Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena: Classical Theories.- 13 The Ising Model.- 14 Scaling Theories and the Renormalization Group.- 15 Nonequilibrium Phenomena: I. Kinetic Methods.- 16 Nonequilibrium phenomena: II. Stochastic Methods.- Appendices.- A.1 Stirling’s asymptotic series.- A.2 Gaussian integrals.- A.3 Dirac’s delta function.- A.4 Volume of a hypersphere.- A.5 Jacobian transformations.- A.6 The saddle-point method.- A.7 Numerical constants.

Reviews

From the reviews: It is written in an informal, physics type style, but presents precise and well explained arguments. The list of references is well chosen and contains comments which facilitate further readings. --Zentralblatt Math "This book is addressed to physics students at the senior undergraduate or beginning graduate level. As such, it emphasizes physical intuition and central physical arguments over detailed mathematical justification. … Physics students will enjoy the clarity and calculated simplicity of its presentation, while acquiring a broad knowledge of the subject. But, because of its careful selection of conceptual issues and its unassuming style, the book can also be a useful reference to students in other disciplines, including mathematics … ." (Roberto Fernández, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2003 e) "Statistical physics attempts to explain … laws by considering the large number of constituent particles from a statistical point of view. This is also the point of view of this textbook … . It is written in an informal, physics type style, but presents precise and well explained arguments. It supports intuition more than formalism, and discusses a large number of relevant examples and models. … The list of references is well chosen and contains comments which facilitate further readings." (Michael Baake, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 983, 2002)