Paper 4, Section II, C

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2012

Non-relativistic electrons of mass mm are confined to move in a two-dimensional plane of area AA. Each electron has two spin states. Compute the density of states g(E)g(E) and show that it is constant.

Write down expressions for the number of particles NN and the average energy E\langle E\rangle of a gas of fermions in terms of the temperature TT and chemical potential μ\mu. Find an expression for the Fermi Energy EFE_{F} in terms of NN.

For kBTEFk_{B} T \ll E_{F}, you may assume that the chemical potential does not change with temperature. Compute the low temperature heat capacity of a gas of fermions. [You may use the approximation that, for large zz,

0xndxz1ex+11n+1(logz)n+1+π2n6(logz)n1.]\left.\int_{0}^{\infty} \frac{x^{n} d x}{z^{-1} e^{x}+1} \approx \frac{1}{n+1}(\log z)^{n+1}+\frac{\pi^{2} n}{6}(\log z)^{n-1} .\right]