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    Statistical Thermophysics, Robertson

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    Yan-Tung Lin
    The document discusses partition functions and how they are used to represent the states of composite systems. It explains that for indistinguishable particles, the partition function should only include terms where each particle occupies one state, not terms where particles are distinguished. For a system of N indistinguishable particles and m possible states, the proper partition function is the mth power of the single particle partition function.

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    Statistical Thermophysics, Robertson

    Uploaded by

    Yan-Tung Lin
    190 views594 pages
    The document discusses partition functions and how they are used to represent the states of composite systems. It explains that for indistinguishable particles, the partition function should only include terms where each particle occupies one state, not terms where particles are distinguished. For a system of N indistinguishable particles and m possible states, the proper partition function is the mth power of the single particle partition function.

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    Statistical Thermophysics, Robertson

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    The document discusses partition functions and how they are used to represent the states of composite systems. It explains that for indistinguishable particles, the partition function should only include terms where each particle occupies one state, not terms where particles are distinguished. For a system of N indistinguishable particles and m possible states, the proper partition function is the mth power of the single particle partition function.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    190 views594 pages

    Statistical Thermophysics, Robertson

    Uploaded by

    Yan-Tung Lin
    The document discusses partition functions and how they are used to represent the states of composite systems. It explains that for indistinguishable particles, the partition function should only include terms where each particle occupies one state, not terms where particles are distinguished. For a system of N indistinguishable particles and m possible states, the proper partition function is the mth power of the single particle partition function.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 594

    Canonical Systems 117

    where the index n enumerates the states of the composite system and Ecn is the energy
    when the system is in state n. Any state counted in Zc must be an identifiable combination
    state of the composite system and not an alternative or incomplete representation of an
    improperly defined composite state.
    As an illustration, suppose Z 1 and Z2 in Eqs.(3.3.12) and (3.3.13) have just three states
    each; let

    Then the composite Z 12 of Eq. (3.3.15) becomes

    or
    Z12 = a1b 1 + a1b2 + a1b3 + a2 b1 + a2 b2 + a2b3 + a3b 1 + a3b2 + a3b3,
    for nine composite states. But if the subsystems are identical and indistinguishable, then
    ai = bi and the nine terms can be written as ai + 2a 1 a2 + a� + 2a1a3 + a� + 2a2 a3. A term
    such as 2a 1 a2 arises as a1b2 + a2 b1, with ai = bi. In quantum theory, however, the state
    of the system, is properly described as a two-particle state with states 1 and 2 occupied,
    but by particles with no individuality, so it cannot be said that one particle is in state 1
    and the other in state 2. The formalism says that each particle is in both single-particle
    states, and that therefore only one such state exists. (This point is discussed further in the
    commentary of this chapter, in Chapter 4, and in Appendix C.) Thus the proper partition
    function should be
    Zc = ai + a1a2 +a�+a 1 a3 +a;+a2 a3,
    with only six (single) terms, rather than nine (counting the double ones).
    If, instead of two such systems, there are N, then the function corresponding to zf is

    which generates the number of permutations of N elements into three groups, where
    I:
    ( N; m 1, m 2, m3) is the multinomial coefficient and mi = N. The proper partition function
    should be simply

    L a;:n 1 a;1 2 a-;i3 , again with L mi= N,


    m1,m2,m3

    but such a thing is difficult to write for a general partition function with an infinite number
    of energy levels. However, when the number of levels becomes infinite, (or much larger than
    N) the single-system partition function to the Nth power will still be of the form

    (3.3.16)

    with I,::,1 mi N. Evidently, then, most of the mi will be zero, and the largest terms
    in Eq. (3.3.9) are those for which all the mi are 1 or 0. This is just the regime for which

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