Statistical thermodynamics

Description

Objectives: To convey the knowledge and to provide the understanding of basic concepts in the statistical treatment of the thermodynamics of macroscopic systems in the gas phase up to systems with complex interactions among components in all temperature regimes.

Content: The basics in statistics. Physical concepts: microcanonical, canonical and grandcanonical ensembles; partition functions. Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions. The statistical formulation of thermodynamical quantities. Analytical approximations and advanced numerical treatment.

Compétences visées

Calculate the entropy and internal energy of reactants from spectroscopic parameters.

 Apply the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution to analyse spectral intensities, collision and reaction rates.

Calculate the temperature of a rotational spectrum.

 Calculate a reaction entropy and enthalpy.

Determine a thermodynamical equilibrium constant from spectroscopic parameters.

Decide about the level of approximation to apply and about the numerical algorithms to be used for the calculation of thermodynamical quantities in strongly interacting systems.

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