Problems on non-equilibrium statistical physics
Moochan B. Kim
Abstract
Four problems in non-equilibrium statistical physics are investigated: 1. The\nthermodynamics of single-photon gas; 2. Energy of the ground state in Multi-electron\natoms; 3. Energy state of the H2 molecule; and 4. The Condensation behavior in N\nweakly interacting Boson gas.\nIn the single-photon heat engine, we have derived the equation of state similar\nto that in classical ideal gas and applied it to construct the Carnot cycle with a single\nphoton, and showed the Carnot efficiency in this single-photon heat engine.\nThe energies of the ground state of multi-electron atoms are calculated using the\nmodi ed Bohr model with a shell structure of the bound electrons. The di erential\nSchrodinger equation is simpli ed into the minimization problem of a simple energy\nfunctional, similar to the problem in dimensional scaling in the H-atom. For the\nC-atom, we got the ground state energy -37:82 eV with a relative error less than 6\n%.\nThe simplest molecular ion, H+\n2 , has been investigated by the quasi-classical\nmethod and two-center molecular orbit. Using the two-center molecular orbit derived\nfrom the exact treatment of the H+\n2 molecular ion problem, we can reduce the number\nof terms in wavefunction to get the binding energy of the H2 molecule, without using\nthe conventional wavefunction with over-thousand terms. We get the binding energy\nfor the H2 with Hylleraas correlation factor 1 + kr12 as 4:7eV, which is comparable\nto the experimental value of 4:74 eV.\nCondensation in the ground state of a weakly interacting Bose gas in equilibrium\nis investigated using a partial partition function in canonical ensemble. The recursive\nrelation for the partition function developed for an ideal gas has been modi ed to\nbe applicable in the interacting case, and the statistics of the occupation number in\ncondensate states was examined. The well-known behavior of the Bose-Einstein Condensate\nfor a weakly interacting Bose Gas are shown: Depletion of the condensate\nstate, even at zero temperature, and a maximum \nuctuation near transition temperature.\nFurthermore, the use of the partition function in canonical ensemble leads to\nthe smooth cross-over between low temperatures and higher temperatures, which has\nenlarged the applicable range of the Bogoliubov transformation. During the calculation,\nwe also developed the formula to calculate the correlations among the excited\nstates.