Paper 2, Section II, A

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2018

(a) Starting from the canonical ensemble, derive the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for the velocities of particles in a classical gas of atoms of mass mm. Derive also the distribution of speeds vv of the particles. Calculate the most probable speed.

(b) A certain atom emits photons of frequency ω0\omega_{0}. A gas of these atoms is contained in a box. A small hole is cut in a wall of the box so that photons can escape in the positive xx-direction where they are received by a detector. The frequency of the photons received is Doppler shifted according to the formula

ω=ω0(1+vxc)\omega=\omega_{0}\left(1+\frac{v_{x}}{c}\right)

where vxv_{x} is the xx-component of the velocity of the atom that emits the photon and cc is the speed of light. Let TT be the temperature of the gas.

(i) Calculate the mean value ω\langle\omega\rangle of ω\omega.

(ii) Calculate the standard deviation (ωω)2\sqrt{\left\langle(\omega-\langle\omega\rangle)^{2}\right\rangle}.

(iii) Show that the relative number of photons received with frequency between ω\omega and ω+dω\omega+d \omega is I(ω)dωI(\omega) d \omega where

I(ω)exp(a(ωω0)2)I(\omega) \propto \exp \left(-a\left(\omega-\omega_{0}\right)^{2}\right)

for some coefficient aa to be determined. Hence explain how observations of the radiation emitted by the gas can be used to measure its temperature.