"Statistical physics has its origins in attempts to describe the thermal properties of matter in terms of its constituent particles and has played a fundamental role in the development of quantum mechanics. Based on lectures taught by Professor Kardar at MIT, this textbook introduces the central concepts and tools of statistical physics. It contains a chapter on probability and related issues such as the central limit theorem and information theory, and covers interacting particles, with an extensive description of the van der Waals equation and its derivation by mean field approximation. It also contains an integrated set of problems, with solutions to selected problems at the end of the book and a complete set of solutions is available to lecturers on a password protected website at www.cambridge.org/9780521873420. A companion volume, Statistical Physics of Fields, discusses non-mean field aspects of scaling and critical phenomena, through the perspective of renormalization group.
Based on lecture notes from a course on Statistical Mechanics taught by the author at MIT Contains 89 exercises, with solutions to selected problems. Contains chapters on probability and interacting particles. Ideal for graduate courses in Statistical Mechanics
1. Thermodynamics 2. Probability 3. Kinetic theory of gases 4. Classical statistical mechanics 5. Interacting particles 6. Quantum statistical mechanics 7. Ideal quantum gases Solutions to selected problems Index."