Statistical Physics

The DeGruyter Studies in Mathematical Physics are devoted to the publication of monographs and high-level texts in mathematical physics. They cover topics and methods in fields of current interest, with an emphasis on didactical presentation. The series will enable readers to understand, apply and develop further, with sufficient rigor, mathematical methods to given problems in physics. For this reason, works with a few authors are preferred over edited volumes. The works in this series are aimed at advanced students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical physics. They also can serve as secondary reading for lectures and seminars at advanced levels.

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This book is essentially based on the lecture course on “Statistical Physics”, which was taught by the author at the physical faculty of the Ural State University in Ekaterinburg since 1992. This course was intended for all physics students, not especially for those specializing in theoretical physics. In this sense the material presented here contains the necessary minimum of knowledge of statistical physics (also often called statistical mechanics), which is in author’s opinion necessary for every person wishing to obtain a general education in the field of physics. This posed the rather difficultproblem of the choice of material and compact enough presentation. At the same time it necessarily should contain all the basic principles of statistical physics, as well as its main applications to different physical problems, mainly from the field of the theory of condensed matter. Extended version of these lectures were published in Russian in 2003. For the present English edition, some of the material was rewritten and several new sections and paragraphs were added, bringing contents more up to date and adding more discussion on some more difficult cases.