Paper 1, Section II, C

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2016

Consider an ideal quantum gas with one-particle states i|i\rangle of energy ϵi\epsilon_{i}. Let pi(ni)p_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)} denote the probability that state i|i\rangle is occupied by nin_{i} particles. Here, nin_{i} can take the values 0 or 1 for fermions and any non-negative integer for bosons. The entropy of the gas is given by

S=kBinipi(ni)lnpi(ni)S=-k_{B} \sum_{i} \sum_{n_{i}} p_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)} \ln p_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)}

(a) Write down the constraints that must be satisfied by the probabilities if the average energy E\langle E\rangle and average particle number N\langle N\rangle are kept at fixed values.

Show that if SS is maximised then

pi(ni)=1Zie(βϵi+γ)nip_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)}=\frac{1}{\mathcal{Z}_{i}} e^{-\left(\beta \epsilon_{i}+\gamma\right) n_{i}}

where β\beta and γ\gamma are Lagrange multipliers. What is Zi\mathcal{Z}_{i} ?

(b) Insert these probabilities pi(ni)p_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)} into the expression for SS, and combine the result with the first law of thermodynamics to find the meaning of β\beta and γ\gamma.

(c) Calculate the average occupation number ni=ninipi(ni)\left\langle n_{i}\right\rangle=\sum_{n_{i}} n_{i} p_{i}^{\left(n_{i}\right)} for a gas of fermions.