Homework 13 (Due Monday, October 14th)

1. Consider a system of two atoms, each having only three quantum states; the states have energies 0, and 2. Find the canonical partition function QN assuming: (a) Fermi statistics. (b) Bose statistics. (c) Classical statistics for distinguishable particles. Hint: The number of possible congurations is small and can be explicitly written out. 2. A cylinder is separated into two compartments by a free sliding piston; the two compartments maintained at equal temperature. Two identical Fermi gases are placed into the two compartments, numbered 1 and 2. The particles in compartment 1 have spin 1 2 , while those in compartment 2 have 3 spin 2 . They all have the same mass. Find the equilibrium relative density n1 /n2 of the two gases at T = 0 and T . 3. Show that the grand canonical partition function, Q, for a 2-dimensional Fermi gas in an area A is given by, ln Q = A C (T ) f2 (z ) and nd the function C (T ).1 (b) Show that for a 2-dimensional Fermi gas in an area A, N = A C (T ) f1 (z ) (c) Show that for a 2-dimensional Fermi gas in an area A, U = C (T ) f2 (z ) and nd the function C (T ).

4. Show that, in two dimensions, the specic heat CV (N, T ) of an ideal Fermi gas is identical to the specic heat of a two-dimensional ideal Bose gas, for all N and T . [Hint: See exercise 8.12 in Pathria and Beale]

1 This

is not heat capacity.

Solution 1. (a) For Fermi statistics, no more than one particle can occupy a single state and the particles are indistinguishable. Call (i, j ) the states of the two particles so the possible system congurations are: (0, 1) The partition function is thus, (0, 2) (1, 2)

QN = e + e2 + e3

(b) The possible system congurations are: (0, 0) (1, 1) The partition function is thus, QN = 1 + e + 2e2 + e3 + e4 (c) The possible system congurations are: (0, 0) (0, 2) (1, 2) The partition function is thus, QN = 1 + 2e + 3e2 + 2e3 + e4 = (1 + e + e2 )2 = (Q1 )2 (0, 1) (2, 0) (2, 1) (1, 0) (1, 1) (2, 2) (0, 1) (1, 2) (0, 2) (2, 2)

Notice that if we apply the classical correction for indistinguishable particles we would multiply QN by 1/N !. This however is not equivalent to the partition function in part (b) due to the small number of total states in this system. 2. At mechanical equilibrium, the two gases must be at the same pressure. We must now adjust our equation of state for a Fermi gas to account for the spin properties of the particles. The Fermi energy is given by 2 h F = 2m
2

6 2 N gd V

)2/3

= C (gd v )2/3

h 2 2/3 . For particles with spin s, the degeneracy is gd = 2s + 1 so spin 1/2 particles where C = 2 m (6 ) have gd 1 = 2 particles per energy level and spin 3/2 particles have gd 2 = 4 particles per level. The pressure of a Fermi gas at low temperature is

P = Equating the pressure of the two sides, gd 1 or v1 /v2 = (gd 2 /gd 1 )2/5 . Since n = 1/v ,

2 f 2 2/3 5/3 = Cgd v 5 v 5

2/3 5/3 v1

= gd 2 )2/5

2/3 5/3 v2

n1 = n2

gd 1 gd 2

= 22/5

At high temperatures, the quantum eects dont matter and the particles may be treated classically, in which case the densities are equal since both gases obey the classical ideal gas law. 3 (a) To formulate the grand canonical partition function for a 2-D ideal Fermi gases we can start with the general expression, M ( ) ln Q = ln 1 + zei
i=1

For a two-dimensional system the sum converts to integrals as

states i

gd h2

d r

d p=

gd A(2 ) h2

dp p

where the area A comes from the integration over position and the factor of (2 ) comes from the angle 2 2 integration of the momentum. Since = 1 2 mv = p /2m, 2 2Agd ln Q = dp p ln(1 + zep /2m ) 2 h 0 Using the series expansion for ln(1 x) gives ln Q = The integral is now easy to do, ln Q = ( ) 2Agd (1)n z n m 2mkT Agd (1)n+1 z n = h2 n=1 n n h2 n2 n=1 2 2Agd (1)n z n dp p enp /2m h2 n=1 n 0

Since = h/ 2mkT , using the denitions of the Fermi integrals as innite series we get, ln Q = so C (T ) = gd /2 (b) To nd N we use N =z Agd f2 ( z ) 2 ) ln Q

Using the recurrence relations, zf /z = f 1 gives the desired result. (c) To get the energy we just have to evaluate, ( ) U = ln Q z Using the result from part (a), U= Since 2Agd 3 ( d d ) f2 (z )

d h d kT = ( )1/2 = d d 2 2m 3

we get U= so C (T ) = gd AkT /2 . 4. For a 2-dimensional Fermi gas in an area A, gd N gd = 2 f1 (zF ) = 2 ln(1 + zF ); A The corresponding result for a Bose gas is, gd gd N = 2 g1 (zB ) = 2 ln(1 zB ); A UB = gd kT g2 (zB ) 2 UF = gd kT f2 (zF ) 2 gd AkT f2 (z ) 2

For equal values of number density (N/A), we have 1 + zF = (1 zB )1 or zF = Using zdf2 (z )/dz = f1 (z ), f2 (zF ) = 1 ln(1 + z )dz z } 0 zF { 1 1 = + ln(1 + z )dz 1+z z (1 + z ) 0 zF /(1+zF ) 1 2 1 = ln (1 + zF ) ln(1 z )dz 2 z 0 1 2 = ln (1 + zF ) + g2 (zB ) 2
zF

zB 1 zB

or

zB =

zF 1 + zF

where we used the change of variable z = z /(1 z ) to reformulate the second integral into a Bose integral. From the earlier result for energy, [ ] gd kT gd kT 1 2 UF = f2 (zF ) = ln (1 + zF ) + g2 (zB ) 2 2 2 gd kT kT = (N 2 /A)2 + 2 g2 (zB ) 22 gd N 2 h2 + UB = 4mA Finally, by inspection,
Fermi CV =T

UF T

) =T
V,N

UB T

)
Bose = CV V,N