Statistical physics
Published:
Statistical mechanics is a branch of theoretical physics that studies, using probability theory, the average behaviour of a mechanical system where the state of the system is uncertain. A common use of statistical mechanics is in explaining the thermodynamic behaviour of large systems.
We can split in two main branches:
- Equilibrium statistical mechanics
- Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
The basic ideas of the statistical mechanics are:
- Complete mechanical state of the system could be encoded as a phase point or quantum state vector.
- Complete known evolution through equation of evolution as Hamilton’s equations (classical mechanics) or time-dependent Schrödinger equation (quantum mechanics)
To understand the global behavior of the system we can do:
- Solving the complete interlace-equations system of large N (as it is done in the High-performance simulations)
- Using tools (statistical tools basically) to get some specific descriptors and predictors of the global phenomena of the system.
See also
Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Material
- Philosophy of Statistical Mechanics article by Lawrence Sklar for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Videos of lecture series in statistical mechanics on YouTube taught by Leonard Susskind.
- Statistical Thermodynamics - Historical Timeline
- Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics by Richard Fitzpatrick
- Doron Cohen. Lecture Notes in Statistical Mechanics and Mesoscopics. ArXiv
Papers
- Balescu, R. (1968). A unified formulation of the kinetic equations. Physica, 38(1), 98-118.
Books
- Huang, K. (2005). Lectures on statistical physics and protein folding. Singapore: World Scientific.
- Balescu, R. (1997). Statistical Dynamics: Matter out of Equilibrium.
- Leo P. Kadanoff (2000). Statistical Physics: statics, dynamics and renormalization. World Scientific.
- Balescu, R. (1975). Equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. NASA STI/Recon Technical Report A, 76, 32809.
- Gibbs, Josiah Willard (1902). Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
- Mayants, Lazar (1984). The enigma of probability and physics. Springer.