Instructor:  Todd Gingrich

Office:  Ryan Hall 4018

Office Hours:   Thursdays 1 pm, Tech LG52

Telephone:  510-457-8600

Email:  todd.gingrich@northwestern.edu

TA:  Nils Strand

Office Hours:   Mondays 2-4 pm, Wednesdays 2-4 pm

Email:  NilsStrand2022@u.northwestern.edu

Lecture:  Tech LG52

Time:  MTuWF 1-1:50pm CST

The course syllabus contains additional information about notes, evaluations, collaboration, programming assignments, and a course outline.

The course website (this site) will be used to post lecture notes, special notes, homework assignments, and homework solutions.

Lecture notes:

• Tuesday, May 2, 2021: Introduction to the course, steady states of dynamical systems, macroscopic versus microscopic measurements. [Link]
  
• Thursday, May 5, 2021: Macrostates, steady states, and equal a priori weights. [Link] [Video]
  
• Friday, May 6, 2021: Random walks and counting microstates. [Link]
  
• Monday, May 9, 2021: Boltzmann entropy and thermal baths. [Link]
  
• Wednesday, May 11, 2021: The Boltzmann distribution. [Link]
  
• Friday, May 13, 2021: Connecting beta and temperature. [Link]
  
• Monday, May 16, 2021: Conditions for equilibrium. [Link]
  
• Tuesday, May 17, 2021: Conditions for equilibrium continued. [Link][Video]
  
• Wednesday, May 18, 2021: Introducing generating functions. [Link][Video]
  
• Friday, May 21, 2021: Connecting free energies and partition functions. [Link] [Forgot to record today. Sorry!]
  
• Monday, May 23, 2021: What's free about free energy? [Link] [Video]
  
• Tuesday, May 24, 2021: Reversible work. [Link] [Video]
  
• Wednesday, May 25, 2021: Irreversible work. [Link]
  
• Friday, May 27, 2021: Potentials of mean force and intro to kinetics. [Link] [Video]
  
• Tuesday, May 31, 2021: Activated processes. [Link] [Bonus Link] [Video]
  

Homework assignments will normally be made available on this website one week before they are due. Late work will only be accepted if arrangements are made in advance or if there are particularly exceptional circumstances. 

• Problem Set 1, due Friday, May 13 at 11:59 pm [Solutions]
  
• Problem Set 2, due Friday, May 20 at 1 pm [Solutions]
  
• Problem Set 3, due Friday, May 27 at 1 pm [Solutions]
  
• Problem Set 4, due Tuesday, May 31 at 11:59 pm [Solutions]
  
• Final Exam, due Saturday, June 11 at Noon [Solutions]