y

so
n=

n=

( ) / kT

1
exp[( )/kT ] 1

Because many bosons can occupy the level n ranges from 0 to . n = when exp[( )/kT ] = 1.
i.e., when = . Note that cannot be larger than , if it were larger than , exp[( )/kT ] < 1 and
n would be negative. n is an average number of particles in a level, it must be nonnegative, you cant
have a minus number of particles. If is increased so that it equals then Bose-Einstein condensation
takes place. This phenomenon is beyond the scope of this course. Here we will only consider the case
> 0. A plot of n as a function of is shown in Fig. 4.

n, in a single energy level of energy , as a function

of the chemical potential minus this energy, over kT . The solid black curve is for fermions and the
dashed grey curve is for bosons. Note that the curve for bosons diverges at = and is not defined
for > .

d
= y(1 y)2
dy

y + 2y 2 + 3y 3 +
y(1 y)2
exp [( )/kT ]
=
= y(1 y)1 =

(1 y)1
1 exp[( )/kT ]

and finally

-4 -3 -2 -1

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
n 2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

and

1
.
1 exp[( )/kT ]
The probability of the state with n bosons in it is then just
=

(27)

exp [n( )/kT ]

1
exp [( )/kT ]
so p0 =
p1 =

We can also work out the average number of bosons in the level, n. It is just a sum over each state,
with each state contributing pn n. So,
pn =

n = p 0 0 + p1 1 + p2 2 +
exp [( )/kT ]
exp [2( )/kT ]
exp [3( )/kT ]
n = 0+
1+
2+
3 +

y + 2y 2 + 3y 3 +
n =

12

6.1

Averages and the relationship between the partition function and thermodynamic quantities
Averages

The average of a quantity x is denoted by hxi. By definition it is given by

X
hxi =
p i xi ,

(29)

where the sum is over all possible states, and xi is the value of the quantity x in state i. This works
for any quantity that has a definite value in a given state. Here pi is the probability that the system
is in state i. Thus, if we can calculate the value of x in each state and can find the probabilities pi we
can find the average value of x.
The above expression is always true, but for the rest of this section we will consider only averages
at constant T .

(28)

The sum on top is y + 2y 2 + 3y 3 + . Now, if we take the derivative of = 1 + y + y 2 + y 3 + we

have
d
= 1 + 2y + 3y 2 +
dy
and then if we multiply by y
d
= y + 2y 2 + 3y 3 +
y
dy
which is the sum we need. So the top half of the expression for n is equal to yd/dy. As we know
= 1/(1 y) this derivative is easy to calculate
d(1 y)1
d
=
= (1 y)2
dy
dy

6.2

Average quantities at constant T

We have already found that the probability pi that a system is in a state i with an energy i is
pi = exp(i /kT )/Z, where Z is the partition function
X
Z=
exp(i /kT )
i

Knowing the probabilities pi , we can calculate averages: the average of x is

hxi =

X
i

p i xi =

1X
xi exp(i /kT ),
Z i

13