Statistical Mechanics

This book serves both as a graduate text and as a reference. Statistical mechanics
is a fundamental branch of science which has made substantial progress in the
past decade, opening up many new areas of research. The aim of this book is
not to give a complete introduction to this field, but rather to give a clear
exposition of the most basic principles, and to use relatively up-to-date material
as examples of application. Concepts as well as applications are thus emphasised .
The statistical mechanics of today is so fragmented into subfields and so
extensively applied to various phenomena that the reader cannot hope to become
an expert by just reading one or two textbooks. This text merely aims at helping
the reader establish a solid foundation on the principles, clarify some concepts,
as well as learn some simple ‘tricks’ so that he can cope with new problems
himself. At the time of writing, there are already many textbooks around
including many classics. But they now look somewhat old-fashioned both
conceptually as well as in content. On the other hand, many new books are
too specialised. Scientists are now now heavily devoted to research, and they
expend less effort in writing books. In addition, new knowledge accumulates
rapidly, so much so that it is extremely difficult to write a textbook which
can stand the test of time. This book is a short one, serving the need of students
for the time being. I hope that it can of use to contemporary readers.
Statistical mechanics is a branch of theoretical physics, distinguished by its
extensive applications in physics, astronomy, chemistry, materials science as
well as biology. It is a convenient tool to link the molecular structure and
properties with the macroscopic thermodynamic and electromagnetic behavior.
The application of statistical mechanics can be classified according to its degree