Paper 1, Section II, A

Statistical Physics
Part II, 2020

Using the notion of entropy, show that two systems that can freely exchange energy reach the same temperature. Show that the energy of a system increases with temperature.

A system consists of NN distinguishable, non-interacting spin 12\frac{1}{2} atoms in a magnetic field, where NN is large. The energy of an atom is ε>0\varepsilon>0 if the spin is up and ε-\varepsilon if the spin is down. Find the entropy and energy if a fraction α\alpha of the atoms have spin up. Determine α\alpha as a function of temperature, and deduce the allowed range of α\alpha. Verify that the energy of the system increases with temperature in this range.