Blundell S.J., Blundell K.M. Concepts in Thermal Physics

Oxford University Press, 2006. — 464 p.An understanding of thermal physics is crucial to much of modern physics, chemistry and engineering. This book provides a modern introduction to the main principles that are foundational to thermal physics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The key concepts are carefully presented in a clear way, and new ideas are illustrated with copious worked examples as well as a description of the historical background to their discovery. Applications are presented to subjects as diverse as stellar astrophysics, information and communication theory, condensed matter physics and climate change.
The book is arranged in a series of short, easily digestible chapters, each one introducing a new concept or illustrating an important application. Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter to allow the students to gain practice in each area.Preliminaries
Heat
Probability
Temperature and the Boltzmann factor
Kinetic theory of gases
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution
Pressure
Molecular effusion
The mean free path and collisions
Transport and thermal diffusion
Transport properties in gases
The thermal diffusion equation
The first law
Energy
Isothermal and adiabatic processes
The second law
Heat engines and the second law
Entropy
Thermodynamics in action
Thermodynamic potentials
Rods, bubbles, and magnets
The third law
Statistical mechanics
Equipartition of energy
The partition function
Statistical mechanics of an ideal gas
The chemical potential
Photons
Phonons
Beyond the ideal gas
Relativistic gases
Real gases
Cooling real gases
Phase transitions
Bose–Einstein and Fermi–Dirac distributions
Quantum gases and condensates
Special topics
Sound waves
Shock waves
Brownian motion and fluctuations
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
Stars
Compact objects
Earth’s atmosphere