Course10410112561 lectures
Basic Statistical Mechanics
Prof. Biman Bagchi · IIT Bombay
About
In order to understand natural phenomena like phase transitions or nucleation or many biological reactions like protein folding, enzyme kinetics, we need to understand how many particles interact and behave together in certain specified manner. For example, ice melts at 00 C and water boils at 1000 C, at low temperature the rain drops form in the upper atmosphere. Enzyme beta-galactosidase allows the breaking of the C-O bond that leads to the digestion of lactose .These are complex processes which involve many particles to behave in a collective fashion. This could happen because of the interaction among particles. However, these cannot be solved by Newton’s equations, because we cannot solve Newton’s equations even for three particles interacting system. So the forefathers of this field, Maxwell, Boltzmann and Gibbs introduced probabilistic approach and combined it with mechanics to form the ‘Statistical Mechanics.’ This a branch of theoretical science that parallels Quantum Mechanics and these two together form the main tools at our disposal to understand why things happen and how they happen. The present course will address the basic postulates of Statistical Mechanics and then will show how starting from the basic postulates one builds a formidable framework which can be used to explain phenomena mentioned above.
INTENDED AUDIENCE : Chemistry, Physics, Material Science, Chemical Engineering
PREREQUISITES : Thermodynamics, Basic Algebra and Calculus
Lectures
Week 1
- Lecture 1 : Why Study Statistical Mechanics?
- Lecture 2 : Thermodynamics
- Lecture 3 : Probability Theory Part 1
- Lecture 4 : Probability Theory Part 2
- Lecture 5 : Fundamental concepts and Postulates of Statistical Mechanics Part 1
Week 2
- Lecture 6 : Fundamental concepts and Postulates of Statistical Mechanics Part 2
- Lecture 7 : From Postulates to Formulation
- Lecture 8 : Microcanonical Ensemble
- Lecture 9 : Relation with Thermodynamics in Microcanonical Ensemble Part 1
- Lecture 10 : Relation with Thermodynamics in Microcanonical Ensemble Part 2
Week 3
- Lecture 11 : Canonical Ensemble Part 1
- Lecture 12 : Canonical Ensemble Part 2
- Lecture 13 : Thermodynamic Potential for Canonical ensemble
- Lecture 14 : Grand Canonical Ensemble
- Lecture 15 : Thermodynamic Potentials for Grand Canonical and Isothermal-Isobaric ensembles
Week 4
- Lecture 16 : Fluctuations and Response Function Part 1
- Lecture 17 : Fluctuations and Response Function Part 2
- Lecture 18 : Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy Part 1
- Lecture 19 : Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy Part 2
- Lecture 20 : Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy Part 3
Week 5
- Lecture 21: Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy Part 4
- Lecture 22: Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy Part 5
- Lecture 23: Ideal Gas of Diatomic Molecules: Microscopic Expression for Rotational and Vibrational Entropy and Specific Heat Part 1
- Lecture 24: Ideal Gas of Diatomic Molecules: Microscopic Expression for Rotational and Vibrational Entropy and Specific Heat Part 2
- Lecture 25: Ideal Gas of Diatomic Molecules: Microscopic Expression for Rotational and Vibrational Entropy and Specific Heat Part 3
Week 6
- Lecture 26: Ideal Gas of Diatomic Molecules: Microscopic Expression for Rotational and Vibrational Entropy and Specific Heat Part 4
- Lecture 27: Ideal Gas of Polyatomic molecules
- Lecture 28: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 1
- Lecture 29: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 2
- Lecture 30: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 3
Week 7
- Lecture 31: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 4
- Lecture 32: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 5
- Lecture 33: Cluster Expansion and Mayer’s Theory of Condensation Part 6
- Lecture 34: Phase Transition and Landau Theory Part 1
- Lecture 35: Phase Transition and Landau Theory Part 2
Week 8
- Lecture 36: Phase Transition and Landau Theory Part 3
- Lecture 37: Comments on some important Concepts of Statistical Mechanics
- Lecture 38: Nucleation Part 1: Introduction, Thermodynamics of Nucleation
- Lecture 39: Nucleation Part 2 : Kinetics of Nucleation
- Lecture 40: Nucleation Part 3: Kinetics of Nucleation, Classical Nucleation Theory, Heterogeneous Nucleation
Week 9
- Lecture 41: Nucleation Part 4: Ostwald Step Rule
- Lecture 42: Spinodal Decomposition and Pattern Formation: Evolution of Structure through Dynamics Part 1
- Lecture 43: Spinodal Decomposition and Pattern Formation: Evolution of Structure through Dynamics Part 2
- Lecture 44: Ising Model and Other Lattice Models Part 1
- Lecture 45: Ising Model and Other Lattice Models Part 2
Week 10
- Lecture 46: Ising Model and Other Lattice Models Part 3
- Lecture 47: Ising Model and Other Lattice Models Part 4
- Lecture 48: Ising Model and Other Lattice Models Part 5
- Lecture 49: Binary Mixtures: Towards Understanding Non-Ideality and Osmotic Pressure Part 1
- Lecture 50: Binary Mixtures: Towards Understanding Non-Ideality and Osmotic Pressure Part 2
Week 11
- Lecture 51: Theory of Liquids Part 1
- Lecture 52: Theory of Liquids Part 2
- Lecture 53: Theory of Liquids Part 3
- Lecture 54: Theory of Liquids Part 4
- Lecture 55: Polymers in Solution and Polymer Collapse Part 1
Week 12
- Lecture 56: Polymers in Solution and Polymer Collapse Part 2
- Lecture 57: Polymers in Solution and Polymer Collapse Part 3
- Lecture 58: Polymers in Solution and Polymer Collapse Part 4
- Lecture 59: Computer Simulation Methods in Statistical Mechanics Part 1
- Lecture 60: Computer Simulation Methods in Statistical Mechanics Part 2
- Lecture 61: Conclusion
Syllabus and materials
At NPTEL, as the course publishes them.
Credits and licence
- Institution
- IIT Bombay
- Department
- Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Teacher
- Prof. Biman Bagchi
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Language
- English
- Subjects
- Chemistry
- Source
- NPTEL
- Licence
- CC BY-NC-SA, as NPTEL states it. Non-commercial use only. NPTEL's terms
- Attribution
- NPTEL states: "Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike / CC BY - NC - SA", beside a BY-NC-SA badge.
- Who can watch
- NPTEL gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from what the source says about it. How courses are placed