Instructor:   Andrew Belmonte
Contact info:   322 McAllister Building, telephone: 865-2491, email: alb18.AT.psu.edu

This course will provide a one-semester introduction and overview of this subject, with an emphasis on the mathematical foundations and assumptions of this physical theory. We will start with the basic laws of thermodynamics, treated in its own right. We will then begin again on the statistical mechanics of a many (many) body system, and build connections back to thermodynamics. Additional topics will include quantum statistics (fermions, bosons), phase transitions, and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.

The course is aimed at graduate students in mathematics, with interests in mathematical modeling, fluid or solid mechanics, ergodic theory, numerical analysis, partial differential equations, or other areas. It could also be accessible to students from other disciplines (contact the instructor).

• Statistical Mechanics - Fundamentals and Model Solutions, by Teunis C. Dorlas
  available as a Penn State eBook - click here
  (out of print: IOP Publishing 1999, ISBN 0-7503-0540-1)
• Foundations of Statistical Mechanics: A Deductive Treatment, by Oliver Penrose (Dover 2005),
  ISBN 0-486-43870-8.

• Thermodynamics, by Enrico Fermi (Dover 1956),
  ISBN 0-486-60361-X.
• Statistical Mechanics, by R. K. Pathria, 2nd edition (Pergamon 1996),
  ISBN 0-7506-2469-8.