Subject Matter and Course Text
The subject matter of Physics 140A-B is thermodynamics and statistical physics. During the Fall quarter (140A) we will cover: (i) thermodynamics, (ii) probability, (iii) statistical ensembles, and (iv.a) Bose statistics. During the Winter quarter (140B) we will cover: (ic.b) Fermi statistics, (v) interacting systems, (vi) mean field theory, and (vii) kinetics.

The course text is Reif's "Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics". While this is a dated text (originally published in 1965), it is still very strong on the fundamentals: thermodynamics, statistical ensembles, quantum statistics, and kinetic theory. I will mainly be following my own lecture notes. You should notice that my notes are overall more mathematically demanding than Reif, and indeed I use them for both 140AB as well as the graduate statistical physics course 210A. However, (i) what is covered in one quarter in 210A is spread over two quarters in 140AB, and (ii) we will skip some of the harder material anyway.

At the beginning of each chapter of my notes, I list some recommended texts. I am placing the following texts on reserve in the Science and Engineering Library:

1. F. Reif, "Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics" (Waveland Press, 2008) (required course text)
2. E. Fermi, "Thermodynamics" (Dover, 1956)
3. D. V. Schroeder, "An Introduction to Thermal Physics" (Addison-Wesley, 2000)
4. A. H. Carter, "Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics" (Prentice-Hall, 2001)
5. H. Callen, "Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics" (Wiley, 1985)
6. R. Pathria, "Statistical Mechanics" (2nd ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996)

For thermodynamics, I strongly recommend the little book by Fermi as well as the volume by Schroeder. For those seeking a higher level text than Reif, I would recommend Pathria.


Course Web Site
Lecture notes and reading assignments, important announcements, homework assignments and solutions will all be available through the course web site. Please check it each day to see if there is new material. The notes themselves are complete, but I may make some editorial changes or additions as we go along. I will indicate on the lecture notes page the date, time, and size (in pages) of the most recent upload for each chapter.

On the course home page, I have included a number of links to potentially useful websites. The most useful should be the web pages for W09 Physics 140B and S10 Physics 210A. In particular, all the homework sets and exams as well as their detailed solutions are available. (The W09 Physics 140B site contains all the HW from F08 Physics 140A.) This is a superb resource!

Problem Sets
I will try to assign one problem set per week, due at the beginning of the following Monday's class. Problem sets will not be printed out for you, but rather will be available through the course website. You are encouraged to discuss the problem sets with your fellow students. I suggest that you initially try to do the problems by yourselves, so that you can more accurately identify your confusions and honestly assess your weaknesses. Then, before you write up your assignment, get together with some of your fellow students to talk over the problems and hammer out the details. Solutions to problem sets will be posted on the course website. Hopefully the solutions and your graded assignments will be made available in a timely manner, but invariably there are lags from time to time.

TA, Office Hours, Problem Sessions
My office hours will be Thursdays from 10:00 am to 11:30 am. My office is in 5438 Mayer Hall.The TA for this class is David Stone. David will hold weekly office hours, Thursdays from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm. We will also conduct a weekly problem session during which the class will break up into small groups for prolem solving. The problem session is scheduled for Wednesday evenings, from 6:00 pm until 7:50 pm, in Pepper Canyon Hall 120.

Grading and exams
The magic formula: 35% problem sets, 15% midterm exam, 50% comprehensive final. The midterm is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 28. Those who are curious of my general grading inclinations can look here.

Discussion Board
The course home page contains a link to the Physics Department discussion boards. You must register in order to be able to post. This is a place where you can publicly discuss the course, ask questions of the professor, exchange tips about homework, tell jokes, pose riddles, post links to interesting web sites, etc. Just keep it clean, folks. The TA and I will be checking in regularly.

Academic Holidays
There will be no class on Friday, November 11 (Veterans Day). The week of the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no problem session on Wednesday evening Nov. 23, no office hours on Nov. 24, and no class on Nov. 25.