PHYS 504 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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1. General Information
Welcome to PHYS 504 - STATISTICAL PHYSICS!
The course will be held in person at 276 Loomis Laboratory on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:20 p.m. (US central time).
Jorge’s Office Hours: My office hours will be Fridays from 12 to 1 p.m in Loomis 437B.
I strongly encourage you to use this opportunity to talk about physics with me (course topics, broader physics questions — you decide!). Feel free to contact me via email at other times, although an appointment will probably be needed, given my other activities. In any case, remember that email is the best way to reach me.
TAs Office Hours: Marshal Dong = 1-2 pm on Wednesdays, at ESB third floor lounge.
Jinchao Zhao = 3:30 - 4:30 pm on Fridays, at ESB 4121.
The lectures will be broadcast via Zoom and also recorded. All lectures will be available via MediaSpace.
2. Course Grading
Course grading will proceed in compliance with University policy as given in Article 3, Part 1 of the Student Code.
Any discrepancies found in your gradebook should be brought to the attention of your section instructor immediately.
Homework: Starting in week 2, homework sets will be available online on Wednesdays after class. They are due the following Wednesday at 11:55 pm US central time and must be submitted as one PDF file via myphysics. We will not accept homework by email. Questions about the grading of homework assignments should be directed to the TAs. Unless a valid, verifiable excuse is given, homework sets submitted late will receive a 10% penalty per day (between Friday and Monday, a 20% penalty applies). Homework sets turned in more than a week late will receive no credit. Homework is essential to the course; you cannot learn physics just from lectures. The solutions to the homework will not be distributed, but the TAs can provide substantive comments on your work.
Midterm Exam: The midterm exam will occur during class on March 12, 2025, from 2:00-3:20 pm US Central in 276 Loomis Lab in person. You must show your work and explain your steps to get full credit. Intermediate steps and reasoning will be marked, as will the final answer. This is an individual exam; do not provide or receive help from anyone to complete the exam. You cannot use computer algebra programs such as Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, any other textbook/lecture notes/personal notes, the internet, ChatGPT (or similar), or other solutions in the midterm exam.
Final Exam: The final exam will be an individual take-home exam that will become available on May 9, 2025. The completed exam must be submitted online via myphysics by 11:55 pm US Central on March 13, 2025. You must show your work and explain your steps to get full credit. Intermediate steps and reasoning will be marked, as will the final answer. This is an individual exam; do not provide or receive help from anyone to complete the exam. You cannot use computer algebra programs such as Mathematica, Maple, Matlab, any other textbook, the internet, ChatGPT (or similar), or other solutions in the final exam. You are allowed to use my lecture notes and your own personal notes in the final exam.
1-hour research paper review: You will write four short reviews (which must not take you more than 60 minutes!) about some exciting paper you find on the web about statistical physics, broadly defined (you can search for papers using Google Scholar, iNSPIRE, or check APS journals, for instance). The detailed instructions for the review can be found here. Please follow the instructions so you don't spend more than an hour doing this. The reviews are due on weeks 3, 6, 9, and 12 and will be submitted via myphysics. Please understand that you will not be graded for fully understanding the papers you review. Instead, you will get the points by making an honest effort to fulfill the instructions, which will teach you an essential skill that all scientists must have: efficient paper reading.
Grading: Final grade = 660 points from homework + 100 points from the midterm exam + 160 points from the final (take-home) exam + 80 points from the paper reviews.
Final Grade Minimum Points
A+ | 970 |
A | 930 |
A- | 890 |
B+ | 850 |
B | 810 |
B- | 770 |
C+ | 730 |
C | 690 |
C- | 650 |
D+ | 600 |
D | 550 |
D- | 500 |
F | <500 |
3. Pre-requisites
PHYS 504 is a self-contained course. Nevertheless, you are strongly encouraged to have first attended an undergraduate physics course in thermal physics and quantum mechanics. For instance, the Physics Department course website lists PHYS 427 (Thermal and Statistical Physics) and PHYS 486 (Quantum Physics I) as our prerequisites. A reasonable textbook that covers elementary material is Thermal Physics by C. Kittel and H. Kroemer.
4. Textbooks
There is no official textbook for this course. However, you will have access to my handwritten notes right away on the course website. My notes are not meant to be a substitute for your own personal notes. Note-taking is a valuable and vital skill to learn.
Here are some books traditionally recommended for a graduate-level statistical mechanics course.
· M. Kardar, Statistical Physics of Particles.
· L. P. Kadanoff, Statistical Physics: Statics, Dynamics and Renormalization.
· N. D. Goldenfeld, Lectures on Phase Transitions and the Renormalization Group (my personal favorite).
· L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Statistical Mechanics (Part I and II); Physical Kinetics (classic, marvelous, mandatory books)
· K. Huang, Statistical Mechanics.
· R. Kubo, M. Toda, and N. Hashitsume, Statistical Physics (Parts 1 and 2).
· R. P. Feynman, Statistical Mechanics: A Set of Lectures.
5. Feedback
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or comments about the class or if I mistakenly assume you are familiar with some basic material. Your feedback is essential for this course — please get in touch with me. There is no point in waiting until the end of the semester (or when you fill in an evaluation) because it is too late for me to consider acting on the feedback by then.
6. Course Outline
This is an introductory course in that we will mainly discuss simple systems in equilibrium and some essential topics about out-of-equilibrium systems. We will see in this course the following topics: a review of the basic concepts behind statistical mechanics, thermal equilibrium, laws of thermodynamics, microcanonical ensemble, statistical mechanics in phase space, ergodic hypothesis, canonical and grand canonical ensembles, free energies, virial theorem, ideal quantum gases with quantum statistics, density operators, typicality, interacting gases, virial coefficients, cluster expansion, Debye-Huckel model, phase transitions, liquid-gas phase transition (van der Waals), mean-field theory and its critical exponents, Ising model in 1 and 2 dimensions, exact results, Krammers-Wannier duality, Landau-Ginzburg theory, phase transitions of n-th order, spontaneous symmetry breaking, superfluids, Lee-Yang zeros, Langevin equation, Crooks fluctuation theorem, Boltzmann equation, conservation laws and hydrodynamic equations, sound and transport processes, normal Fermi liquid, introduction to the renormalization group (if we have time).
7. Academic Integrity
All activities in this course are subject to the Academic Integrity rules as described in Article 1, Part 4, Academic Integrity, of the Student Code.
8. Disability Access (DRES)
The Department of Physics is committed to providing an open and welcoming environment for all students and helping them succeed in our courses.
To obtain disability-related academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the course instructor and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) as soon as possible. To contact DRES, visit 1207 S. Oak St., Champaign, call 333-4603, e-mail disability@illinois.edu, or visit the DRES website. If you are concerned you have a disability-related condition that is impacting your academic progress; there are academic screening appointments available on campus that can help diagnose a previously undiagnosed disability by visiting the DRES website and selecting “Sign-Up for an Academic Screening” at the bottom of the page.
9. Assistance for Academically Related and Personal Problems
Most college offices and academic deans provide academic skills support and assistance for academically related and personal problems. Links to the appropriate college contact can be found by going to this website and selecting your college or school: http://illinois.edu/colleges/colleges.html
If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression or are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or in crisis, you can seek help through the following campus resources:
Counseling Center
206 Fred H. Turner Student Services Building
7:50 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday
Phone: 333-3704
McKinley Mental Health
313 McKinley Health Center
8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday
Phone: 333-2705
McKinley Health Education offers individual consultations for students interested in learning relaxation and other stress/time management skills; call 333-2714.