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8.333 Statistical Mechanics I: Statistical Mechanics of Particles

Fall 2007

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8.333: Statistical Mechanics I Problem Set # 6 Due: 12/7/07 @ mid-night!

Ideal Quantum Gases

1. Numerical estimates: The following table provides typical values for the Fermi energy
and Fermi temperature for (i) Electrons in a typical metal; (ii) Nucleons in a heavy nucleus;
and (iii) He3 atoms in liquid He3 (atomic volume = 46.2˚ A3 per atom).
n(1/m3 ) m(Kg) εF (eV) TF (K)
electron 1029 9 × 10−31 4.4 5 × 104
nucleons 1044 1.6 × 10−27 1.0 × 108 1.1 × 1012
liquid He3 2.6 × 1028 4.6 × 10−27 ×10−3 101
(a) Estimate the ratio of the electron and phonon heat capacities at room temperature for
a typical metal.
(b) Compare the thermal wavelength of a neutron at room temperature to the minimum
wavelength of a phonon in a typical crystal.
(c) Estimate the degeneracy discriminant, nλ3 , for hydrogen, helium, and oxygen gases
at room temperature and pressure. At what temperatures do quantum mechanical effects
become important for these gases?
(d) Experiments on He4 indicate that at temperatures below 1K, the heat capacity is
given by CV = 20.4T 3 JKg −1 K−1 . Find the low energy excitation spectrum, E(k), of He4 .
(Hint: There is only one non-degenerate branch of such excitations.)
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2. Solar interior: According to astrophysical data, the plasma at the center of the sun
has the following properties:
Temperature: T = 1.6 × 107 K
Hydrogen density: ρH = 6 × 104 kg m−3
Helium density: ρHe = 1 × 105 kg m−3 .
(a) Obtain the thermal wavelengths for electrons, protons, and α-particles (nuclei of He).

(b) Assuming that the gas is ideal, determine whether the electron, proton, or α-particle
gases are degenerate in the quantum mechanical sense.
(c) Estimate the total gas pressure due to these gas particles near the center of the sun.
(d) Estimate the total radiation pressure close to the center of the sun. Is it matter, or
radiation pressure, that prevents the gravitational collapse of the sun?
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3. Exciton dissociation in a semiconductor: Shining an intense laser beam on a semicon­

ductor can create a metastable collection of electrons (charge −e, and effective mass me )
and holes (charge +e, and effective mass mh ) in the bulk. The oppositely charged particles
may pair up (as in a hydrogen atom) to form a gas of excitons, or they may dissociate into
a plasma. We shall examine a much simplified model of this process.
(a) Calculate the free energy of a gas composed of Ne electrons and Nh holes, at temper­
ature T , treating them as classical non-interacting particles of masses me and mh .
(b) By pairing into an excition, the electron hole pair lowers its energy by ε. [The binding
energy of a hydrogen-like exciton is ε ≈ me4 /(2h̄2 ǫ2 ), where ǫ is the dielectric constant,
−1
and m−1 = m−1
e + mh .] Calculate the free energy of a gas of Np excitons, treating them
as classical non-interacting particles of mass m = me + mh .
(c) Calculate the chemical potentials µe , µh , and µp of the electron, hole, and exciton
states, respectively.
(d) Express the equilibrium condition between excitons and electron/holes in terms of their
chemical potentials.
(e) At a high temperature T , find the density np of excitons, as a function of the total
density of excitations n ≈ ne + nh .
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4. Non-interacting bosons: Consider a grand canonical ensemble of non-interacting

bosons with chemical potential µ. The one–particle states are labelled by a wavevector ~
q ,

and have energies E(~q).

(a) What is the joint probability P ({nq~ }), of finding a set of occupation numbers {nq~}, of

the one–particle states, in terms of the fugacities zq~ ≡ exp [β(µ − E(~q))]?

(b) For a particular ~q, calculate the characteristic function hexp [iknq~ ]i.

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(c) Using the result of part (b), or otherwise, give expressions for the mean and variance
of nq~ . occupation number hnq~ i.
(d) Express the variance in part (c) in terms of the mean occupation number hnq~ i.
(e) Express your answer to part (a) in terms of the occupation numbers {hnq~i}.
(f) Calculate the entropy of the probability distribution for bosons, in terms of {hnq~ i}, and
comment on its zero temperature limit.
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5. Graphene bilayer: The layers of graphite can be peeled apart through different exfo­
liation processes. Many such processes generate single sheets of carbon atoms, as well as
bilayers in which the two sheets are weakly coupled. The hexagonal lattice of the single
layer graphene, leads to a band structure that at low energies can � �be approximated by
1 layer ~
E± (k) = ±tk (ak), as in relativistic Dirac fermions. (Here k = �~k �, a is a lattice spac­
� �

ing, and tk is a typical in-plane hopping energy.) A weak hopping energy t⊥ between the
two sheets of the bilayer modifies the low energy excitations drastically, to

t2k
E bilayer
± (~k) =± (ka)2 ,
2t⊥
i.e. resembling massive Dirac fermions. In addition to the spin degeneracy, there are two
branches of such excitations per unit cell, for an overall degeneracy of g = 4.
(a) For the undoped material with one electron per site, at zero temperature all negative
energy states are occupied and all positive energy ones are empty. Find the chemical
potential µ(T ).
(b) Show that the mean excitation energy of this system at finite temperature satisfies

d2~k E + (~k)
�
E(T ) − E(0) = 2gA � � .
(2π)2 exp βE (~k) + 1
+

(c) Give a closed form answer for the excitation energy of the bilayer by evaluating the
above integral.
(d) Calculate the heat capacity, CA , of such massive Dirac particles.
(e) A sample contains an equal proportion of single and bilayers. Estimate (in terms of the
hopping energies) the temperature below which the electronic heat capacity is dominated
by the bilayers.

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(f) Explain qualitatively the contribution of phonons (lattice vibrations) to the heat ca­
pacity of graphene. The typical sound velocity in graphite is of the order of 2 × 104 ms−1 .
Is the low temperature heat capacity of (monolayer) graphene controlled by phonon or
electron contributions?
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6. Neutron star core: Professor Rajagopal’s group at MIT has proposed that a new
phase of QCD matter may exist in the core of neutron stars. This phase can be viewed as
a condensate of quarks in which the low energy excitations are approximately
� �2
|~k | − kF
E(~k)± =± h̄2 .
2M

The excitations are fermionic, with a degeneracy of g = 2 from spin.

(a) Assuming a constant density of states near k = kF , i.e. setting d3 k ≈ 4πkF2 dq with
q = |~k | − kF , show that the mean excitation energy of this system at finite temperature is
∞
k2 E + (q)
�
E(T ) − E(0) ≈ 2gV F2 dq .
π 0 exp (βE + (q)) + 1

(b) Give a closed form answer for the excitation energy by evaluating the above integral.
(c) Calculate the heat capacity, CV , of this system, and comment on its behavior at low
temperature.
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7. (Optional) Bose condensation in d–dimensions: Consider a gas of non-interacting

2
(spinless) bosons with an energy spectrum ǫ = p /2m, contained in a box of “volume”
V = Ld in d dimensions.
(a) Calculate the grand potential G = −kB T ln Q, and the density n = N/V , at a chemical
+
potential µ. Express your answers in terms of d and fm (z), where z = eβµ , and
∞
1 xm−1
�
+
fm (z) = dx.
Γ (m) 0 z −1 ex − 1

(Hint: Use integration by parts on the expression for ln Q.)

(b) Calculate the ratio P V /E, and compare it to the classical value.

4
(c) Find the critical temperature, Tc (n), for Bose-Einstein condensation.

(d) Calculate the heat capacity C (T ) for T < Tc (n).

(e) Sketch the heat capacity at all temperatures.

(f) Find the ratio, Cmax /C (T → ∞), of the maximum heat capacity to its classical limit,

and evaluate it in d = 3.
(g) How does the above calculated ratio behave as d → 2? In what dimensions are your
results valid? Explain.
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8. (Optional) Freezing of He4 : At low temperatures He4 can be converted from liquid
to solid by application of pressure. An interesting feature of the phase boundary is that
the melting pressure is reduced slightly from its T = 0K value, by approximately 20Nm−2
at its minimum at T = 0.8K. We will use a simple model of liquid and solid phases of 4 He
to account for this feature.
(a) The important excitations in liquid 4 He at T < 1K are phonons of velocity c. Calculate
the contribution of these modes to the heat capacity per particle CVℓ /N , of the liquid.
(b) Calculate the low temperature heat capacity per particle CVs /N , of solid 4 He in terms
of longitudinal and transverse sound velocities cL , and cT .
(c) Using the above results calculate the entropy difference (sℓ − ss ), assuming a single
sound velocity c ≈ cL ≈ cT , and approximately equal volumes per particle vℓ ≈ vs ≈ v.
Which phase (solid or liquid) has the higher entropy?
(d) Assuming a small (temperature independent) volume difference δv = vℓ − vs , calculate
the form of the melting curve. To explain the anomaly described at the beginning, which
phase (solid or liquid) must have the higher density?
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