SOAL-SOAL

Exercise 1.1. Using the Hamiltonian (1.28) for a particle in a magnetic field, find the Hamilton
equations of motion. Show that the result for in the uniform magnetic field
1
= 2 +
2
(1.28)
1 2
= ( ) + .
2

1 1
= ; = ; = 0,
2 2

is just the Lorentz force equation.

Exercise 1.2. Find the Hamilton equations of motion of a free particle, using cylindrical
coordinates r, z,.

Exercise 2.1.Consider a simple linear harmonic oscillator; show that the orbit in phase space is
an ellipse.

Exercise 6.1. Show that

() = 1,
=

where w(n) is defined by (6.2), and the sum is over even or odd n according to whether N is even
or odd. Hint: Express w(n) in terms of binomial coefficients, and observe that () =
1 1
(2 + 2) = 1.
Exercise 6.2. Show thai the mean square value of n is N. This is shown by calculating

2 = 2 (),

where the sum is over even or odd n according to whether N is even or odd. If we replace the
sum by an integral,

1
2 = 2 () = ,
2
using (6.8). We can easily get the result of this exercise in another way, by calculating
(6.12)
2 = (1 1 1 )2 = ,

because the cross products

(1)(1)of different terms average to zero, whereas the squares of a
given term average to unity:
(1)2 = 1.

Exercise 6.3. In a magnetic field the energy is = . We shall see later that the Helmholtz
free-energy F is equal to , where k is the Boltzmann constant and Tis the absolute
temperature. The natural definition of the entropy of a non-equilibrium state of the system is log
W(n), where W(n)is given by (6.1). Show that, for n N,

2
() + + ,
2

which is a minimum with respect to n when

Exercise 6.4. Evaluate

. .



Exercise 7.1. Show that particles tend to move from a region of higher to lower as the
system approaches equilibrium.

Exercise 8.1. Show that the Helmholtz free energy tends to a minimum in systems at constant
temperature and volume.

Exercise 8.2. Show that in systems at constant temperature and pressure the Gibbs free energy
tends to a minimum.

Exercise 8.3. (a) Show that

( ) = ( ) .

1
(b) Show that = 4 is a solution of this equation if U = V ()and = 3 ; here C is a

constant of integration. This result is known in the theory of black-body radiation as the Stefan-
Boltzmann law.

Exercise 10.1. If

= sin(/)

for a particle on a line of length L with the boundary condition (0) = () = 0, work out
1
the first three wave functions for the problem of two particles on the line, for 1 = 0 and I = 2 .
Neglect the coulomb interaction between the particles.

Exercise 10.2. Consider two perfect gases, each of the same volume and at the same
temperature, and each consisting of N molecules. The first consists entirely of one type, and the
second is a mixture of the first type and another type (say 1 of first, 2 of second, 1 + 2 =
).Discuss how one has to weight the phase space of each gas to account for the identity of the
particles. Show that the entropy of the mixture is higher, and calculate this "entropy of mixing.,,
Assume 1 and 2 have the same mass and same spin.
Exercise 12.1. Show that the result (12.34)

is consistent with

if

= log ,

where is the probability that the 5th eigenstate is occupied.

Exercise 12.2. Assume that a system has a probability of being in its sth state, which has
energy . Further, let the system have a given mean value of the energy, say U. Then show
that, if the entropy is defined as

= log ,

the entropy is maximum for p8given by a canonical distribution.

Exercise 12.3. Suppose we have an infinite column of a classical gas consisting of N

independent identical atoms of mass M, placed in a uniform gravitational field and at thermal
equilibrium. Find:

(a) The classical partition function.

(6) The mean energy per atom.

(c) The heat capacity per atom.

Exercise 12.4. Consider a monatomic crystal consisting of N atoms. These may be situated in
two kinds of position:

(a) Normal position, indicated by 0.

(b) Interstitial position, indicated by x.

Suppose that there is an equal number (= N) of both kinds of position, but that the energy of an
atom at an interstitial position is larger by an amount e than that of an atom at a normal position.
At T = 0 all atoms will therefore be in normal positions. Show that, at a temperature T, the
number n of atoms at interstitial sites is

= /2 .

Use the fact that the Helmholtz free energy is a minimum for equilibrium at constant volume and
temperature.

Exercise 13.1. Show that the root mean square velocity of a Maxwellian gas at constant volume
and temperature is

vrms = [3kT/M]1/2,

and that the most probable speed is

|| = [2kT/M]1/2

Exercise 13.2. Calculate the pressure on the wall of a container holding N atoms of a perfect gas
at volume V and temperature T. Use the Maxwell velocity distribution law and consider the
momentum changes at the wall.

Exercise 13.3. Calculate the total number of molecules striking unit area of wall per unit time,
for a Maxwellian distribution.

Exercise 13.4. Show that the fluctuation of the velocity is given by

( ) =
() = (/) ( ),

for a Maxwellian gas. Show further that the energy fluctuation of an atom in a monatomic
Maxwellian gas is

= () .
()

Exercise 13.5. Find the velocity distribution in the z direction of molecules emerging from a
small hole in a wall in the xy plane. In order that the gas near the hole should be undisturbed by
the presence of the hole we must require that the radius of the hole be small in comparison with
the molecular mean free path.

Exercise 13.6. (a) Show that if the energy e depends on a generalized coordinate q or momentum
p of a molecule in such a way that as p or it is possible to generalize the theorem
of equipartition of energy to:

( ) = ( ) = .

(b) Verify that this reduces to ordinary equipartition when has a quadratic dependence on the
coordinate or momentum.

(c) If has the relativistic dependence on the momenta

= [(2 + 2 + 2 ) + 2 2 ]1/2 ,

show that

2 2
2 2
2 2
( )=( )=( ) = .

Exercise 13.7. Using the anharmonic potential() = 2 3 4 , show that the

approximate heat capacity of the classical anharmonic oscillator is, to order T,

2
[ + ( 2 + ) ].
8 3
1
: (1 + ) 2 2 1; the calculation is shorter if the partition function is
employed.
Exercise 13.8. Suppose the energy of a molecule is the sum of independent contributions arising
from translation, rotation, vibration, etc. Show that the total partition function can be written as
the product of separate partition functions

Exercise 14.1. Derive the grand canonical distribution for the case when there are several
different kinds of molecules present.

Exercise 14.2. Derive the Poisson distribution from a probability argument, not using our
machinery of statistical mechanics. (Consult a text on probability theory.)

Exercise 15.1. Derive general expressions for the spin part of the internal energy, entropy, and
heat capacity of a system of N particles with spin in a uniform magnetic field H.

Exercise 15.2. Consider N particles each with a classical vector magnetic moment. The energy
of interaction with a magnetic field H is cos , where is the angle between and H, and
classically may have any value between 0 and. Evaluate the classical partition function. Find an
expression for the average magnetization in thermal equilibrium at temperature T. Show by the
Boltzmann distribution that in a non-uniform field the concentration of particles varies as

(/)
.
(/)

Exercise 17.1. Find the rotational partition function of deuterium (D2); the nuclear spin is 1.

Exercise 17.2. Find an expression for the equilibrium ratio of ortho- to para-hydrogen at any
temperature.

Exercise 18.1. Show that the magnetization of an ideal paramagnet is constant if the magnetic
field is changed under adiabatic conditions.
Exercise 18.2. (a) = (/), find an expression for the entropy of magnetization
(, ) (0, ).

(b) Evaluate the entropy of magnetization when = /,where C is the Curie constant.

Exercise 18.3. Show that for electric polarization the interaction energy (18.13) becomes

12 = 1

find an expression for .

Exercise 18.4. A system of independent spherical dust particles each bearing on its surface an
electric charge Q is in thermal equilibrium in a magnetic field H in interstellar space. Finda
classical expression for the ensemble average magnetic moment component along the field
direction.

Exercise 19.1. Using the result (14.26)

= ( )
,

and the expression (19.11)

= log[1 + (1 )/ ],

show that

(19.25) = [ + (1 ) log(1 )]

for fermions.

Exercise 20.1. Show directly that the kinetic energy per particle of a Fermi gas at absolute zero
is
3
Ekin = 5 0
Exercise 20.2. (a) Show directly that for a Fermi gas of free electrons
2
0 = (2) (3 2 )2/3

where N is the number of particles per unit volume. (b) Find the pressure at T = 0K.

Exercise 20.3. In a metal the allowed energy states of electrons do not form a continuum but fall
into bands. If the metal contains N positive ions, then each band contains 2N states. Call the
energies of these states . (a) Show that, if all the in a band are occupied by electrons, then
these electrons contribute nothing to the low temperature thermal properties of the metal. (b) If
2N N' of these states are occupied, show that the contribution to the thermal properties of
these electrons is the same as that of a gas of N' electrons in a band with energies (- ) and
chemical potential ( -), where is the chemical potential of the actual electrons.

Exercise 20.4. If g() is the density of states, show that

2
= 2 (0 )
3

is the heat capacity of a fermion gas at r 0 , even if g() should be a complicated function
of .

Exercise 20.5. Show that the paramagnetic spin susceptibility of a free electron gas is
independent of temperature when 0

Exercise 21.1. Discuss a perfect gas of monatomic atoms obeying Bose-Einstein statistics in two
dimensions. Does an Einstein condensation phenomenon occur?

Exercise 21.2. Show that for bosons

= [ log - (1+ ) log (1+ )]

Exercise 22.1. Derive the Planck radiation law for a two-dimensional space. Using the result,
derive the Stefan-Boltzmann law for a two-dimensional space.

Exercise 22.2. Derive the photon distribution law (22.2) using the canonical ensemble result for
the relative populations of the eigenstates En = nhv = n

Exercise 22.3. Debye theory of the lattice heat capacity of solids. At low temperatures, the heat
capacity of dielectric solids is known to be proportional to T3, just as the heat capacity of the
radiation field as derived from (22.10) is proportional to T3. We call a quantized elastic wave a
phonon, in analogy to a photon as a quantized electromagnetic wave. The dispersion relation for
long-wavelength phonons is approximately

= csk,

where cs is the velocity of sound, (a) If cs is taken as constant for all three longitudinal and
transverse modes of vibration, show that the heat capacity per unit volume

(22.12) = (12 4 /5) (/)3

where the Debye temperature is given by

(22.13) k= cs(62N)1/3

N being the number of atoms per unit volume. It is instructive to rewrite (22.12) for a cube of
side L
2 2
(22.14) = ( ) = ( 1 )3
5

(b) In an elastic solid the total number of vibrational modes is limited to 3 times the number of
atoms. There is no similar requirement in the photon problem. Show that at sufficiently high
temperatures the lattice vibration contribution to the heat capacity of an elastic solid must change
from T3 to a value independent of temperature. What is the actual value at high temperatures?

Exercise 22.4. Suppose we have some type of wave-like excitation in a solid with the dispersion
relation

= Ak2;
show that the excitation makes a contribution to the heat capacity (at low temperatures)
proportional to T3/2. This behavior is characteristic of spin waves (magnons) in a ferromagnetic
solid.

Exercise 22.5. (a) What is the contribution to the heat capacity of a dielectric solid of the black-
body radiation in the solid at T = 300K? Compare with the experimental heat capacities of
solids. Assume that the refractive index n is constant over the entire range of frequencies of
interest.

(b) Assuming the ordinary (lattice) heat capacity to be constant at high temperatures and equal to
3R per mole, at what temperature does the contribution of the black-body radiation to the heat-
capacity become comparable to that of the ordinary heat capacity?

Exercise 22.6. Calculate in terms of and V the number of pions produced in an extremely high-
energy collision, using the statistical model given above.

Exercise 22.7. Suppose photons obeyed Fermi-Dirac statistics, but were not conserved in
number. Find an expression for the energy density as a function of temperature analogous to the
Stefan-Boltzmann law. This result can be applied to the estimation of the number of nucleon-
antinucleon pairs produced in an extremely high-energy collision.

Exercise 23.1. The Hamiltonian of an electron spin in a magnetic field is = . , where

is the Pauli spin operator. Take H parallel to the z axis, (a) What are the components of the
density matrix for a canonical ensemble in a representation with diagonal? (b) In a
representation with diagonal? (c) Evaluate < > in both representations.

Exercise 23.2. Suppose = 0 + 1 ; show that to first order in the density matrix in the
representation in which 0 is diagonal is given by
0 ( ) 0 ( )
(23.36) = 0 ( ) + (m|1 |) + ,

Exercise 25.1. Show that
2
(x ) 2 x 3 x 3x (x ) 2

the third moment is a measure of the skewness of a distribution.

Exercise 25.2. Show that for a Gaussian distribution about the origin
2
x 3 3( x 2 )

Prove this directly by considering N steps 1; let N become very large; it is known (Sec. 27) that
a distribution constructed in this way is Gaussian.

Exercise 25.3. Estimate roughly the relative electronic energy fluctuation in 1022 atoms of
metallic copper in thermal equilibrium at 10 5 deg K. Recall that for conduction electrons
Cv Nk (T TF ) , to order of magnitude TF 10 5 deg K.

Exercise 25.4. (a) Discuss the energy fluctuations in a set of N independent magnetic moments
0 in thermal equilibrium in a magnetic field H. Assume 0 . Assume that the total
energy of the system is = 0 , where n is the excess number of moments in the direction
of H. (b) Discuss the fluctuations of n.

Exercise 25.5. Verify that the result (25.28) applies to photons; it is

necessary to calculate
2 directly because the chemical potential does not enter the photon
distribution law (22.2).

Exercise 25.6. Show that the energy fluctuations in the grand canonical ensemble are given by

U 2 U
2

(E ) 2 2 (N )
N N '

using (25.19) and the identities

 N N


N

U

N

Note that the first term on the right in the expression for (E )2 is just the result for the canonical
ensemble.

Exercise 25.7. Consider the characteristic function applied to the probability density ( p, q ) :

1
u(a ) e ( p, q) dp dq
iaY ( p ,q )
1
( 2 ) 2

(a) Show that the actual distribution of Y(p, q) is given by the Fourier inversion of u(a).

(b) If Y is taken as the energy, show that for a canonical ensemble the distribution of the energy
is

1 1
f (E) Z (1 ) Z ( 1 ia ) e iaE da
2

where Z is a function of ( 1 ia ) as indicated by Z ( 1 ia ) .

(c) For a perfect gas of N molecules, show that

E 3 N 2 1
f (E) e E
3N 2 3N 2

where E is the total energy. Here f(E) dE is the probability of finding the total energy of N
molecules in dE at E. Assume 3N/2 is an integer.

Exercise 27.1. If f ( x ) e k x show that

 1 k
g (u ) ( 2 ) 2
k u2
2

If f ( x) e x
2
/2
Exercise 27.2. show that

g (u ) e u
2
/2
(27.8)

Exercise 27.3. If f ( x ) 1 2 ,

(27.9) g (u ) (u )

Where (u is the Dirac delta function.

Exercise 27.4. Show that for a Markoff process

(27.23) p2 x1 , 0 x2 , t dx p2 x1 , 0 x, t0 p2 x, 0 x2 , t t0

for all t0 between zero and t . This is known as the Smoluchowski equation.

Exercise 27.5. Show that the central limit theorem applies when the variable assumes only the
values 1, with equal probability.

Exercise 28.1. (a) Find the conditional probability 'distribution px1 x2 , associated with
W x1 , x2 in (28.38).

(b) If ( ) e c discuss the form of px1 x2 , for c and show the connection with the
diffusion problem with the boundary condition

px1 x2 ,0 x1 x2
Exercise 28.2. Consider a function which changes value randomly every 0 seconds, but is
otherwise constant. Show that the correlation function is, for 0 ,

(28.43) C ( ) f (t ) 2 1
0

Find the power spectrum.

Exercise 29.1. Express 2/in watts for a 5000-cycle band width at 300K.

Exercise 29.2. Prove, with reference to (29.12), that a one-dimensional Gaussian process will be
Markoffian only for a correlation function () /0 .. This result is due to Doob. To show the
theorem calculate the distribution functions3 (1 2 3 ) and 2 (1 2 ), using the method of Rice.
Thislets us determine the conditional probability 3 (1 2 |3 ) which for a Markoffprocess must
be identical with 2 (1 |2 ), .The equalitycan only be satisfied if

(3 1 ) = (2 1 ) (3 2 ),

which has the solution () /0 .

Exercise 29.3. Show that the power spectrum of the random voltage associated with an
impedance

Z ( f ) R( f ) iY ( f )
G ( f ) 4 R( f )kT

defining G ( f ) as in (29.2).

Exercise 30.1. (a) Express the mean square value of [x(t) - x(t - )] in terms of the mean square
value and correlation function of the fluctuating quantity x(t). (b) Find Z(f) for a device which
gives the output [x(t) - x(t - )] when the input is x(t) and so obtain the mean square value of the
output in terms of the power spectrum of x(t).
Exercise 31.1. (a) A vessel is filled with water to the height of 10 cm. In the earth's gravitational
field at room temperature, what is the maximum diameter of a particle of aluminum which will
remain qualitatively in suspension in the liquid?

(b) It is a well-known experimental fact that particles much larger than this will appear to remain
in suspension for long periods of time. Calculate the steady-state sedimentation velocity for an
aluminum particle of diameter one micron in water at room temperature in the gravitational field
of the earth.