Re: ideal Bose gas

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 08:05 AM 5/12/99 -0600, Jim Green wrote:
> |On the other hand, since you are doing a quantum-mechanical calculation, I
> |will *not* assume that the gas is classical.
>
> This is an _ideal_ gas

Some folks (maybe even you) think the term "_ideal_ gas" rules out
identical-particle effects, but let me point out that a lot of professional
physicists think otherwise.

A search such as:
  http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?q=ideal.bose.gas
will turn up many references to "ideal Bose gas" and if you want to read
more about it you can follow links such as:
  http://amo.phy.gasou.edu/bec.html/bibliography.html
and thre are even some articles aimed at nonspecialists:
  http://amo.phy.gasou.edu/bec.html/popular.html


**********************************

On the other side of the coin, if you are really interested in a classical
ideal gas, then I should clarify my answer to your original question.  Your
equation

> V(6) = DxDyDzDpxDpyDpz = h^3                                   (eq 1)

can be replaced by the classical equation

> V(6) = DxDyDzDpxDpyDpz = g^3                                   (eq 1')

where g is an arbitrary constant less than or not excessively greater than
Plank's h.  This introduces an element of arbitariness into the definition
of entropy.  (The arbitrariness is inelegant but harmless.)

Cheers --- jsd