[Phys-L] Ideal Quantum Gasses online notes

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Hi Folks --

Here is a reference that discusses the statistical mechanics
of ideal gasses:
http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys603/kelly/Notes/IdealQuantumGases.pdf

In particular, this reference
  -- Does not assume that everything is classical (although of
   course you can obtain the classical idea gas in the
   appropriate limit), and
  -- Does not make the "continuum approximation" i.e. replacing
   sums by integrals ... which would work reeeally poorly for a
   Bose gas at low temperatures, where a single discrete quantum
   state sucks up a significant fraction of the total probability.
   (References that do make this assumption are a dime a dozen.)

I haven't scrutinized it line by line, but on first reading
this work makes a very good impression.  The derivations look
correct, and remarkably clear:
  -- not too many missing steps, and
  -- some nice illustrations (for example, the one at the top
   of page 12, showing just how Bose and Fermi fluids converge to
   the classical limit ... I'd never seen it presented that way).

This material is not for the faint of heart.  It was prepared as
course notes for a graduate level course.  The prerequisite is an
undergraduate course in thermo / stat mech.

Other notes for the same course can be found at
   http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys603/kelly/notebooks.htm

In the Fluids section, the "pdf" link is broken;  I strongly suspect
it should point to
   http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys603/kelly/Notes/fluids.pdf
not the corresponding .ps file.

I haven't looked at these files at all, but if they are of the same
quality as the ideal quantum gasses writeup, this is a valuable trove.
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