Chemistry 444
Elementary Statistical Mechanics!
Fall 2019
Northwestern University
- Instructor: Todd Gingrich
- Office: Ryan 4018
- Office Hours: Mondays 11:15 am, Fridays 3 pm
- Telephone: 847-491-4048
- Email: todd.gingrich@northwestern.edu
-
- TA: Ray Fu
- Office: Ryan 4038
- Office Hours: Mondays 4:30-6 pm
- Email: rfu@u.northwestern.edu
- Lecture: Tech LG62
- Time: TuTh 9:30-11am
- Supporting texts: David Chandler, Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics.
- Ken Dill and Sarina Bromberg, Molecular Driving Forces: Statistical Thermodynamics in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Nanoscience.
- Daan Frenkel and Berend Smit, Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications.
- Herbert Callen, Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatics.
- Hugo Touchette, The Large Deviation Approach to Statistical Mechanics.
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- Midterm Exam: Thursday, November 7. [Exam template]
Please consult the course syllabus for course objective and policies.
On the first day of class I collected email addresses for the course
mailing list. If you would like to be included, please email Todd.
The course website (this site) will be used to post lecture notes, special
notes, homework assignments, and homework solutions.
Lecture notes:
- Tuesday, September 24, 2019: Introduction to the course, dynamics in chemistry, chaos, and ergodicity hypothesis. [Notes]
- Thursday, September 26, 2019: The Boltzmann distribution. [Notes] [Large system limit Python demo]
- Tuesday, October 1, 2019: Fluctuating volume and the ideal gas law. [Notes]
- Thursday, October 3, 2019: Ideal gas law and beta as inverse temperature. [Notes]
- Tuesday, October 8, 2019: Conditions for equilibrium, Boltzmann entropy [Notes]
- Thursday, October 10, 2019: Pressure, chemical potential, Helmholtz free energy [Notes]
- Tuesday, October 15, 2019: Connecting the canonical partition function to the Helmholtz free energy. [Notes]
- Thursday, October 17, 2019: What's partition-y about partition functions? What's free about free energy? [Notes]
- Tuesday, October 22, 2019: Reversible work [Notes]
- Thursday, October 24, 2019: Pulling on a polymer. [Notes]
- Tuesday, October 29, 2019: Nonequilibrium work relations [Notes]
- Thursday, October 31, 2019: Heat capacity, energy fluctuations, grand canonical ensemble. [Notes]
- Tuesday, November 5, 2019: Maxwell Boltzmann and ensemble equivalence. [Notes]
- Tuesday, November 12, 2019: Ensemble equivalence and Gibbs phase rule. [Notes]
- Thursday, November 14, 2019: Phase diagrams, ideal chemical potential, and chemical equilibria. [Notes]
- Tuesday, November 19, 2019: Phase transitions and an intro to the Ising model. [Notes]
- Thursday, November 21, 2019: More Ising, free energy of magnetization. [Notes]
- Tuesday, November 26, 2019: From enumeration to sampling. [Notes]
- Tuesday, December 3, 2019: Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Balance, Detailed Balance. [Notes]
Homework
assignments
will normally be made available on this website by Tuesday of
each week, and will be due on Tuesday of the following week at
the beginning of class. Late work will only be accepted if arrangements
are made in advance or if there are particularly exceptional
circumstances.
- Problem Set 1, due Tuesday, October 1 at 9:30 am. [Python script demonstrating plotting] [Solution]
- Problem Set 2, due Tuesday, October 8 at 9:30 am. [Python script][Solution]
- Problem Set 3, due Tuesday, October 15 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Problem Set 4, due Tuesday, October 22 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Problem Set 5, due Tuesday, October 29 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Problem Set 6, due Tuesday, November 5 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Assignment 7, Project topic due Tuesday, November 19 at 9:30 am.
- Exam Corrections, due Tuesday, November 19 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Problem Set 8, due Tuesday, December 2 at 9:30 am. [Solution]
- Problem Set 9, due Tuesday, December 9 at 5:00 pm. [Ising1D.ipynb] [Ising2DFramework.ipynb][Solution]