Lecturer
Beginning of course
The first class will take place on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. The first tutorials will take place on Wednesday, October 28, and the first sheet will be due on Monday, October 26.
Spacetime
- Wednesday, 11:30 - 13:00, Hörsaal V57.02, Pfaffenwaldring 57
- Friday, 11:30 - 13:00, Hörsaal V57.02, Pfaffenwaldring 57
General Information
- The lecture will be given in German.
- The registration for the exercise groups will be open from Friday, October 16, 2026, 1:30 PM. To do so, you need the Lecture Key given in the first and second lecture. Note that the registration is only possible from within the university network.
- If you assign a password at the registration, you can request your current scores here. This is highly recommended as it will allow you to monitor your points.
Recordings of the lectures can be accessed via ILIAS. The recordings should be seen as a service to those of you who cannot come on a specific date (e.g., due to sickness etc.) or want to recap later. However, I highly recommend attending as many lectures as possible, to take advantage of the interactive nature of the classroom and learn with/from your peers.
Examination
There will be a written exam at the end of the course (spacetime to be announced) on the content covered by the lecture. The exam will be 2h and you will be allowed to bring one A4 page (both sides) with handwritten notes.
To qualify for the written exam, you have to pass the exercise class (see below). Students who have already obtained a suitable certificate from another lecturer must have it recognized by December 7, 2026 by sending it via E-Mail to Prof. Scheurer.
Literature
- Schwabl, Statistische Mechanik, Springer
- Fließbach, Statistische Physik, Spektrum
- Nolting, Grundkurs Theoretische Physik 4+6, Springer
- Bartelmann, Feuerbacher, Krüger, Lüst, Rebhan & Wipf, Theoretische Physik 4: Thermodynamik und Statistische Physik, Springer
- Huang, Statistical Mechanics, John Wiley & Sohns
- Landau & Lifschitz, Lehrbuch der Theoretischen Physik V, Akademie Verlag
Topics
Vorwort und Motivation. Das Vielteilchenproblem. Emergenz.
Thermodynamik. Zustandsgrößen. Ideales und van-der-Waals-Gas. Hauptsätze der Thermodynamik. Carnot-Prozess. Entropie. Thermodynamische Potentiale. Response Funktionen. Maxwell-Relationen.
Klassische stochastische Prozesse. Grundlagen der Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie. Zentraler Grenzwertsatz. Markov-Prozesse. Mastergleichung. Detailliertes Gleichgewicht. H-Funktion. Zwei-Zustands-System. Stochastische Irrfahrt und Diffusion. Fokker-Planck-Gleichung. Langevin Gleichung.
Klassische statistische Mechanik. Fundamentale Prinzipien. Mikrokanonisches, kanonisches, und großkanonisches Ensemble. Entropie. Ideals Gas. Klassischer Gleichverteilungssatz. Klassische Spin-Modelle.
Quantenmechanische Statistische Physik. Dichte-Matrix. Quantenmechanische Ensembles. Ununterscheidbare Teilchen. Ideale Fermigase. Sommerfeld-Entwicklung. Ideale Bosegase. Bose-Einstein-Kondensation. Phononen.
Phasenübergänge. Landau-Theorie der Phasenübergänge. Klassisches Ising Modell. Molekularfeldnäherung.
Je nach Zeit am Ende des Semesters besprechen wir weitere ausgewählte Themen.
Requirements to pass exercise class
The weekly exercises class will involve:
(1) Handing in solutions for those exercises labeled as "written"; these will be marked and discussed in the next tutorial. The deadline is Mondays at noon. Please upload your solutions on ILIAS before the deadline.
(2) Virtual presentations: at the beginning of every tutorial, you can indicate on a list which parts of the exercises labeled as "oral" you have prepared and are willing to present. While everyone will get points for the parts signed up for, only one person will have to present it.
If any question on the exercise lists is not clear enough, please feel free to contact your tutor for clarifications.
In order to pass the exercises, you need at least 50% of the points in (1) and 66% of the points in (2); furthermore, every student is required to present at least two times on the blackboard.
Problem Sets
| No. | Published | Due | Download | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Tutorials
| Tutor | Room | Day | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
|
TBA (Gruppe 1a) |
5.331 | Wed | 9:45 AM |
|
TBA (Gruppe 1b) |
4.342 | Wed | 9:45 AM |
|
TBA (Gruppe 2a) |
5.331 | Wed | 2:00 PM |
|
TBA (Gruppe 2b) |
2.326 | Wed | 2:00 PM |
|
TBA (Gruppe 3a) |
5.331 | Thu | 11:30 AM |
|
TBA (Gruppe 3b) |
2.328 | Thu | 11:30 AM |