Fundamental postulate of statistical thermodynamics. Entropy. Microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical ensembles. Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein and Boltzmann Statistics. Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution. Applications to specific heat of solids, classical and quantum gases, electrons in metals, Planck’s law of radiation, and Bose-Einstein condensation. [Offered: W] Prereq: (PHYS 258/358/ECE 403 or CHEM 254 or ME 250); (PHYS 234 or CHEM 256/356 or Coreq: AMATH 373). Antireq: (For Mathematics students only) AMATH 477
