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The microcanonical ensemble satisfies (,,) = hence, its characteristic state function is .; The canonical ensemble satisfies (,,) = hence, its characteristic state function is the Helmholtz free energy.
In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applications include many problems in the fields of physics, biology, [1] chemistry, neuroscience, [2] computer science, [3] [4] information theory [5] and ...
According to the second law of thermodynamics, a system assumes a configuration of maximum entropy at thermodynamic equilibrium. We seek a probability distribution of states ρ i {\displaystyle \rho _{i}} that maximizes the discrete Gibbs entropy S = − k B ∑ i ρ i ln ρ i {\displaystyle S=-k_{\text{B}}\sum _{i}\rho _{i}\ln \rho _{i ...
The derivations in this section are along the lines of Boltzmann's 1877 derivation, starting with result known as Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics (from statistical thermodynamics). Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics gives the average number of particles found in a given single-particle microstate .
The discontinuity in , and other properties, e.g. internal energy, , and entropy,, of the substance, is called a first order phase transition. [12] [13] In order to specify the unique experimentally observed pressure, (), at which it occurs another thermodynamic condition is required, for from Fig.1 it could clearly occur for any pressure in the range .
Thermal physics, generally speaking, is the study of the statistical nature of physical systems from an energetic perspective. Starting with the basics of heat and temperature, thermal physics analyzes the first law of thermodynamics and second law of thermodynamics from the statistical perspective, in terms of the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate.
The thermodynamic limit is essentially a consequence of the central limit theorem of probability theory. The internal energy of a gas of N molecules is the sum of order N contributions, each of which is approximately independent, and so the central limit theorem predicts that the ratio of the size of the fluctuations to the mean is of order 1/N 1/2.
In physics, specifically statistical mechanics, an ensemble (also statistical ensemble) is an idealization consisting of a large number of virtual copies (sometimes infinitely many) of a system, considered all at once, each of which represents a possible state that the real system might be in.