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In physics, a partition function describes the statistical properties of a system in thermodynamic equilibrium. [ citation needed ] Partition functions are functions of the thermodynamic state variables , such as the temperature and volume .
In quantum field theory, partition functions are generating functionals for correlation functions, making them key objects of study in the path integral formalism. They are the imaginary time versions of statistical mechanics partition functions , giving rise to a close connection between these two areas of physics.
The partition function or configuration integral, as used in probability theory, information theory and dynamical systems, is a generalization of the definition of a partition function in statistical mechanics. It is a special case of a normalizing constant in probability theory, for the Boltzmann distribution.
Vibrational partition function, partition function for the vibrational modes of a molecule; Partition function (quantum field theory), partition function for quantum path integrals; Partition function (mathematics), generalization of the statistical mechanics concept; Partition function (number theory), the number of possible partitions of an ...
The partition function and the free energy are intimately linked to phase transitions, for which there is a sudden change in the properties of a physical system. Mathematically, a phase transition occurs when the partition function vanishes and the free energy is singular (non-analytic).
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is a mathematical function that describes about how many particles in the container have a certain energy. More precisely, the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution gives the non-normalized probability (this means that the probabilities do not add up to 1) that the state corresponding to a particular energy is ...
The total canonical partition function of a system of identical, indistinguishable, noninteracting atoms or molecules can be divided into the atomic or molecular partition functions : [1] =! with: = /, where is the degeneracy of the jth quantum level of an individual particle, is the Boltzmann constant, and is the absolute temperature of system.
In the statistical physics of spin glasses and other systems with quenched disorder, the replica trick is a mathematical technique based on the application of the formula: = or: = where is most commonly the partition function, or a similar thermodynamic function.