Statistical Mechanics: Lecture notes

Essential Advanced Physics is a series comprising four parts: Classical Mechanics, Classical Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. Each part consists of two volumes, Lecture notes and Problems with solutions, further supplemented by an additional collection of test problems and solutions available to qualifying university instructors.

Written for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, the goal of this series is to provide readers with a knowledge base necessary for professional work in physics, be that theoretical or experimental, fundamental or applied research. From a formal point of view, the series satisfies typical PhD basic course requirements at major universities. Selected parts of the series may be also valuable for graduate students and researchers in allied disciplines, including astronomy, chemistry, materials science, and mechanical, electrical, computer and electronic engineering.

Essential Advanced Physics is focused on the development of problem-solving skills. The following features distinguish it from other graduate-level textbooks:

• Concise lecture notes (~250 pages per semester)
  
• Emphasis on simple explanations of the main concepts, ideas and phenomena of physics
  
• Sets of exercise problems, with detailed model solutions in separate companion volumes
  
• Extensive cross-referencing between the volumes, united by common style and notation
  
• Additional sets of test problems, freely available to qualifying faculty
  

This volume forms the basis for a one-semester course on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The structure of the course is mostly traditional though, due to the current interest in nanoscale systems and ultrasensitive physical measurements, large attention is given to classical and quantum fluctuations of various physical variables. A brief introduction to physics kinetics is also included.