Thermal Physics: Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers 1st Edition by Robert Floyd Sekerka (PDF)

Description

In Thermal Physics: Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers, the fundamental laws of thermodynamics are stated precisely as postulates and subsequently connected to historical context and developed mathematically. These laws are applied systematically to topics such as phase equilibria, chemical reactions, external forces, fluid-fluid surfaces and interfaces, and anisotropic crystal-fluid interfaces.Statistical mechanics is presented in the context of information theory to quantify entropy, followed by development of the most important ensembles: microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical. A unified treatment of ideal classical, Fermi, and Bose gases is presented, including Bose condensation, degenerate Fermi gases, and classical gases with internal structure. Additional topics include paramagnetism, adsorption on dilute sites, point defects in crystals, thermal aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors, density matrix formalism, the Ising model, and an introduction to Monte Carlo simulation. Throughout the book, problems are posed and solved to illustrate specific results and problem-solving techniques.Includes applications of interest to physicists, physical chemists, and materials scientists, as well as materials, chemical, and mechanical engineersSuitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and practicing researchersDevelops content systematically with increasing order of complexitySelf-contained, including nine appendices to handle necessary background and technical details

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is an excellent intermediate text that can be used for senior undergraduate as well as graduate courses for physics students. I have been teaching the subject to physicists for many years and have always wanted a textbook that combines thermodynamics and statistical mechanics on this level. There are excellent stat. mech books, such as Pathria, but they implicitly assume that the students have a solid background in thermodynamics. Many students do not, for one reason or another; thus the course must usually include a review of thermodynamics preparing them for the statistical-mechanics part.There are several other books that combine thermo and stat. mech., but none fully addresses the problem. The classical text by Landau and Lifshitz (volume 5) is outstanding but too terse. The Callen book is excellent but strongly focused on thermodynamics; the statistical-mechanical chapters come almost like an afterthought and are not sufficient for a serious course. The Kittel-Kromer and similar books are too introductory and lack the rigor expected of a graduate course.This book fills the niche. Coming from a scientist whose own research work has heavily contributed to both subjects, it offers a complete and rigorous presentation of advanced thermodynamics followed by a very clear and well-structured course of statistical mechanics. This integration of the two subjects is one book allows the author to achieve an excellent clarity of exposition and give the students a very clear idea about the different roles played by thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. (Too many stat. mech. textbooks contain long derivations that actually belong to thermodynamics but give the students the impression that this is part of statistical mechanics.)In addition to the traditional topics, the book includes a contemporary and rigorous treatment of a few special topics, such interface thermodynamics (including anisotropic surfaces!), multi-component phase equilibria, phase diagrams and others. They could be assigned as additional reading, especially to physics students specializing in condensed matter. Problem-solving techniques are illustrated by numerous worked problems. The appendices contain useful reference material in mathematics (for example, the Jacobians and differential geometry – both are important techniques used in thermodynamics) and a brief review of the creating-annihilation operators.I am looking forward to using this book as the main text in my graduate statistical mechanics course for physics students. Being on the intermediate level, this book could be a stepping stone to more specialized graduate courses in equilibrium (including e.g. many-body systems, renormalization theory, etc.) and/or non-equilibrium statistical mechanics.

⭐This book belongs on every materials science and materials physics student or professional.Sekerka’s book covers the thermodynamics from the beginning of an undergraduate curriculum to the end of a graduate curriculum–and beyond.Its treatment is rigorous, but without the stodgy and viscous prose that typically accompanies rigorous thermo. Denbigh’s “Thermo for Physicists” was my previous “go-to” rigorous thermo book. However, Sekerka’s book is much easier to read and its content is more modern.The first half of the book treats classical thermodynamics in the spirit of Gibbs. It starts with the Laws, and then moves to very clear description of equilibria and requirements for equilibrium in a variety of systems. He then moves to phase equilibria where he shows specific examples as well as general cases involving external field. He also treats surface thermodynamics.The second half of the book is a very pedagogical treatment of statistical mechanics.Sekerka nailed it.

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