Welcome to the Fall 2019 Homepage for Physics 8.333

The course is taught by Prof. Mehran Kardar.

Lectures and Recitations: MWF 2:30-4:00, in room 32-141, according to this timetable.

Catalogue Description: A two-semester course on statistical mechanics. Basic principles are examined in 8.333: the laws of thermodynamics and the concepts of temperature, work, heat, and entropy. Postulates of classical statistical mechanics, microcanonical, canonical, and grand canonical distributions; applications to lattice vibrations, ideal gas, photon gas. Quantum statistical mechanics; Fermi and Bose systems. Interacting systems: cluster expansions, van der Waal's gas, and mean-field theory. Topics from modern statistical mechanics are explored in 8.334: the hydrodynamic limit and classical field theories. Phase transitions and broken symmetries: universality, correlation functions, and scaling theory. The renormalization approach to collective phenomena. Dynamic critical behavior. Random systems.

General course information:

• Teaching Staff
• Course Organization (texts, course policies, due dates, grading, etc.)
• Course Schedule
• Course Outline

Check these pages often for updates:

• Announcements
• Anonymous Comments
• Homework Problems
• Homework Solutions (MIT certificate needed for access)
• Lecture Notes
• Tests (MIT certificate needed for access)
• Grades

From these pages you can access copies of all handouts distributed in class.

8.333 - last update 8/15/2021 by M. Kardar