Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity, Second Edition

 

Available as pdf, and from Oxford University Press.

James Sethna

 

 

  • Random Walks and Emergent Properties
    • Self-similarity and fractals
  • Temperature and Equilibrium
  • Entropy
    • Does Entropy Increase?
    • Shannon Entropy, Entropy of Glasses
    • Life, Heat Death of the Universe, & Black Holes
  • Free Energies and Ensembles
  • Quantum Statistical Mechanics
    • Bosons: Bose Condensation and Superfluids
    • Fermions: Metals, White Dwarves, Neutron Stars
  • Computational Stat Mech: Ising and Markov
    • Monte Carlo, Metropolis, Wolff
    • Stochastic Chemistry: Cells and Gillespie
    • Networks and Percolation
  • Order Parameters, Broken Symmetry, and Topology
    • Homotopy Theory and Topological Defects
    • Excitations and Goldstone's Theorem
    • Dislocations, Disclinations, and Vortices
  • Deriving New Laws
    • What is a Phase?
    • Symmetry and Analyticity: Landau
  • Correlations, Response, and Dissipation
    • Fluctuation-Dissipation
    • Causality and Kramers Krönig
  • Abrupt Phase Transitions
  • Continuous Phase Transitions
    • Universality and the Renormalization Group
    • Scale Invariance and Fractals
    • Percolation, Bifurcation Theory, Routes to Chaos