Ebook: Statistical Physics

This book is essentially based on the lecture course on “Statistical Physics”, that was
taught by the author at the physical faculty of the Ural State University in Ekaterinburg
since 1992. This course was intended for all physics students, not especially for those
specializing in theoretical physics. In this sense the material presented here contains
the necessary minimum of knowledge of statistical physics (also often called statisti-
cal mechanics), which is in the author’s opinion necessary for every person wishing to
obtain a general education in the ¥eld of physics. This posed the rather di1cult prob-
lem of the choice of material and appropriately compact presentation. At the same
time, it necessarily should contain all the basic principles of statistical physics, as
well as its main applications to various physical problems, mainly from the ¥eld of
the theory of condensed matter. Extended version of these lectures were published in
Russian in 2003. For the present English edition, some of the material was rewritten,
and several new sections and paragraphs were added, bringing the contents more up
to date and adding more discussion on some more di1cult cases. Of course, the au-
thor was much inÉuenced by several classical books on statistical physics [19, 20, 37],
and this inÉuence is obvious in many parts of the text. However, the choice of material
and the form of presentation is essentially his own. Still, most attention is devoted to
rather traditional problems and models of statistical physics. One of the few excep-
tions is an attempt to present an elementary and short introduction to the modern
quantum theoretical methods of statistical physics at the end of the book. Also, a lit-
tle bit more attention than usual is given to the problems of nonequilibrium statistical
mechanics. Some of the more special paragraphs, of more interest to future theorists,
aredenotedbyasterisksormovedtotheappendices.Ofcourse,thisbookistooshortto
give a complete presentation of modern statistical physics. Those interested in further
developments should address more fundamental monographs and modern physical
literature.
The second edition of this book has been expanded with boxes presenting brief
summaries of the lives and achievements of the major founders and contributors to
the field of “Statistical Physics”. The biographical details complement the scientific
content of the book and contextualize the discoveries within the framework of global
researchinTheoreticalPhysics.Inmypersonalopinion,thisinformationcanbeuseful
for readers and lecturers alike.