Paper 2, Section II, C

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2015

(a) State the Bose-Einstein distribution formula for the mean occupation numbers nin_{i} of discrete single-particle states ii with energies EiE_{i} in a gas of bosons. Write down expressions for the total particle number NN and the total energy UU when the singleparticle states can be treated as continuous, with energies E0E \geqslant 0 and density of states g(E)g(E).

(b) Blackbody radiation at temperature TT is equivalent to a gas of photons with

g(E)=AVE2g(E)=A V E^{2}

where VV is the volume and AA is a constant. What value of the chemical potential is required when applying the Bose-Einstein distribution to photons? Show that the heat capacity at constant volume satisfies CVTαC_{V} \propto T^{\alpha} for some constant α\alpha, to be determined.

(c) Consider a system of bosonic particles of fixed total number N1N \gg 1. The particles are trapped in a potential which has ground state energy zero and which gives rise to a density of states g(E)=BE2g(E)=B E^{2}, where BB is a constant. Explain, for this system, what is meant by Bose-Einstein condensation and show that the critical temperature satisfies TcN1/3T_{c} \propto N^{1 / 3}. If N0N_{0} is the number of particles in the ground state, show that for TT just below TcT_{c}

N0/N1(T/Tc)γN_{0} / N \approx 1-\left(T / T_{c}\right)^{\gamma}

for some constant γ\gamma, to be determined.

(d) Would you expect photons to exhibit Bose-Einstein condensation? Explain your answer very briefly.