Practice Problems 7

Thermodynamics & Statistical mechanics

1. Consider an idealization of crystal which has N lattice points and same number of interstitial positions (places between
the lattice points where atom can reside). Let E be the energy necessarily to remove an atom from a lattice site to an
interstitial position and let n be the number of atoms occupying interstitial sites in equilibrium.
(a) What is the internal energy of the system ?
(b) what is the entropy S ?
2. Consider a system of N noninteracting atoms. Each atom can be in one of the three states with energies e1 = 0,
e2 = e3 = .
(a) Using the microcanonical formalism, calculate the entropy S for the system as a function of its internal energy U
and N.
(b) From S, derive the expression for the temperature T and internal energy.
3. Many atoms have a spin of 1, so there are three possible spin states, corresponding to +1, 0, 1. Consider a collection
of N such atoms, where N >> 1 and assume that interactions between atoms can be neglected, so that orientation of
the spin of any one atom is independent of the orientation all the others.
4. There is a one dimensional lattice with a lattice constant a as shown in Fig. An atom transits from a site to a nearestneighbor site every seconds. The probabilities of transiting to right and left are pand q = 1 p respectively.

(a) Calculate the average position x

of the atom at the time t = N , where N >> 1.
)2 at the time t.
(b) Calculate the mean square value (x x
5. Consider a cubic box of side L = 1m containing N = 6 1023 ideal gas molecules. Estimate the probability of finding
all the molecules in the left hand of the box. How long might you expect to wait before observing one of the special
arrangements whose probability you have just estimated.
6. For a collection of N three dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator of frequency and total energy E. Compute the
entropy S and the temperature T .
7. A lattice contains N normal lattice sites and N interstitial lattice sites. N identical atoms sit on the lattice, M on
the interstitial sites and N M on the normal sites (N >> M >> 1). If an atom occupies a normal sites, its energy
E = 0. If an atom occupies an interstitial site, its energy is E = . Compute the internal energy and heat capacity as
a function of temperature for this lattice.
8. Consider a system of N identical but distinguishable particle each of which ha two energy level with energy 0 and  > 0.
The upper energy level has a g fold degenerate while lower level is non degenerate. The total energy of the system is
E. Using micro canonical ensemble, find the occupation number n+ and n0 in terms of the temperature of the system.
(where n+ corresponds to upper level and n0 to the lower one ).
9. Suppose that a system has only two states, a and b. Show that entropy is maximum when Pa = Pb = 1/2.
10. Let us consider two system A and B, each one composed of two distinguishable particles. Consider that the total energy
of the system is ET ot = EA + EB = 5 in some suitable units. A and B are in thermal equilibrium and are separated by
a rigid wall not allowing for particles and energy exchange. Compute the entropy when EA = 3 and EB = 2. Repeat
the same calculations when the energy exchange between the two systems is allowed. In the calculation, consider that
each particle energy can only be a positive integer number.
Answers:
1. .

2.
3.
4.
5.
6. S(E, N ) = N K

h

E
N h

3
2

 
 
 
i
ln NEh + 23 NEh 23 ln NEh 32 ,

7.


ge
1
8. n+ = N 1+ge
 , n0 = N 1+ge

1
T

K
h ln

E/N h+ 23
E/N h 32