Assignment-2

1. Consider ideal spinless Fermi gas. Equation of state could be obtained from
s
λ3 V olume 2πh̄2
= f3/2 (z), v = , z = eβµ , λ =
v N mKT
Z ∞  2

4 x
f3/2 (z) = √ dx −1 x2
π 0 z e +1
(a) Obtain an expression for the Fermi energy - F of the system.
(b) Using the large z expansion of f3/2 (z), solve express chemical potential µ in terms of F and β, in a
series in the inverse power of βF . Compute upto the first subleading term.
(c) Use the above results to obtain an expression for total internal energy
X p~2 1
U= p~ hnp~ i where p~ = , hnp~ i = β( −µ) = avg occupation number
2m e p
~ +1
p
~

(d) Compute the specific heat CV .

2. Derive the following expressions for the thermodynamic potentials ( internal energy - U and Helmholtz Free
energy - A) of an ideal Bose Gas.
U 3 v  A v 
= g5/2 (z), = log(z) − g5/2 (z), for T > Tc
N KT 2 λ3 N KT λ3

U 3 v  A v 
= g5/2 (1), = log(z) − g5/2 (1), for T < Tc
N KT 2 λ3 N KT λ3
where Tc is the critical temperature where Bose condensation starts.
Also determine the specific heat CV for both T > Tc and T < TC
3. Suppose x is some one dimensional random variable with probability distribution p(x) i.e.,
Z
0 ≤ p(x) ≤ 1, dx p(x) = 1
Entire range of x

nth moment of x is defined as Z

n
mn ≡ hx i = dx xn p(x)
Entire range of x

Let p̃(k) denote the Fourier transform of p(x)

Z
1
p(x) = dk p̃(k) eikx
2π
Suppose p̃(k) and log[p̃(k)] both admit power series expansion in k i.e., we could write
X X
p̃(k) = m̃n k n , log[p̃(k)] = k n hxn ic
n

1
 (a) Express m̃n in terms of hxn i
(b) Express hxn ic in terms of hxn i
(c) Give a diagrammatic interpretation of the relation between hxn ic and hxn i.
4. Consider a general N particle Hamiltonian
n
X p~2i
H= + Hint (~q1 , ~q2 , · · · , ~qN )
i=1
2m

(a) Using the relations derived in the previous problem express the logarithm of the partition function in an
n
expansion of hHint ic i.e.,
∞
X
n
log Q = log Q0 + Cn hHint ic
n=1
n
where hHint icare calculated with respect to the probablity distribution of an N particle free theory,
treating Hint as if it is a random variable like x.
Determine Q0 and Cn
(b) Now specialize to the case of two particle interaction.
X
Hint = V(|~qi − ~qj |)
i<j

2
Write the expressions for hHint ic and hHint ic in terms of the integrals of V(|~q|) and its powers. Simplify
the expressions as much as possible.
(c) Above expansion effectively reduces to an expansion of log Q in powers of (βV). Determine log Q upto
3
corrections of order O (βV) .
(d) Argue that in the above expansion, any term that involves  p  nontrivial integrations over p points (say
~q1 , ~q2 , · · · , ~qp where p < N ) would be proportional to VNp−1 in the large N limit, where V is the total
volume.
N2
(e) Sum all the terms in log Q that involve integration over two coordinates and there go like ∼ V .
(f) Recover the expansion parameter for the standard classical cluster expansion from the previous problem.

5. Consider the following two-body potential.

V(r) = ∞ if r < r0
 r 6
0
(1)
= −u0 if r ≥ r0
r
where r is the distance between the two particles.

(a) Compute the second virial coefficient using classical cluster expansion.
(b) Truncate the virial expansion at second order and recover van der Waals equation.

6. Problem 14.5 from Kerson Huang. It is a problem related to link-spin duality in 2d Ising model.