Thermal Physics (second edition)
Charles Kittel / Herbert Kroemer
Preface
This book gives an elementary account of thermal physics. The subject
is simple, the methods
are poweful, and the results have broad applications. Probably no other
physical theory is
used more widely throughout science and engineering.
We have written for undergraduate students of physics
and astronomy, and for electrical
engineering students generally. These fields for our purposes have
strong common bonds,
most notably a concern with Fermi gases, whether in semiconductors,
metals, stars, or nuclei.
We develop methods (not original, but not easily accessible elsewhere)
that are well suited to
these fields. We wrote the book in the first place because we were
delighted by the clarity of
the “new” methods as compared to those we were taught when we were
students ourselves.
The second edition is substantially rewritten and
revised from the first edition, which,
although warmly accepted, suffered from the concentration of abstract
ideas at the beginning.
In the new structure the free energy, the partition function, the Planck
distribution are
developed before the chemical potential. Real problems can now be solved
much earlier.
We have added chapters on applications to semiconductors, binary mixtures,
transport theory, cryogenics, and propagation. The treatment of heat and work
is new and will be helpful to those concerned with energy conversion processes. Many more
examples and problems are given, but we have not introduced problems where they
do not contribute to the main line of advance. For this edition an instructor's guide is
available from the publisher, upon request from the instructor.
This edition has been tested extensively over the
past few years in classroom use. We have
not emphasized several traditional topics, some because they are no
longer useful and some
because their reliance on classical statistical mechanics would make
the course more difficult
than we believe a first course should be. Also, we have avoided the
use of combinatorial methods where they are unnecessary.
For a one quarter course for physics undergraduates,
we suggest most of Chapter 1 through 10, plus 14. The Debye theory could be omitted from Chapter 4 and the
Boltzmann transport equation from Chapter 14. For a one quarter course for electrical engineers,
we suggest Chapter 13 at any time after the discussion of Fermi gas in Chapter 7. The
material in Chapter 13 does not draw on Chapter 4. The scope of the book is ample for a one semester
course, and here the pace can be relaxed.
Notation and units: We generally use the SI and
CGS systems in parallel. We do not use the calorie. The kelvin temperature T is related to the fundamental temperature
tau by tau=k_B T, and the conventional entropy S is related to the fundamental entropy
sigma by S=k_B tau.
The symbol log will denote natural logarithm throughout, simply because
ln is less expressive when set in type. The notation (18) refers to Equation (18) of the
current chapter , but (3.18) refers to Equation (18) of Chapter 3.
The book is the successor to course notes developed
with the assistance of grants by the University of California.
Edward M. Purell contributed many ideas to the first edition. We
benefited from review of the second edition by Seymour Geller , Paul
L. Richards, and Nicholas Wheeler. Help was given by Ibrahim Adawi, Bernard
Black, G. Domokos, Margaret Geller, Cameron Hayne, K. A. Jackson,
S. Justi, Peter Kittel, Richard Kittler, Martin J. Klein, Ellen
Leverenz, Bruce H. J. McKellar, F. E. O’Meara, Norman E. Phillips,
B. Roswell Russell, T. M. Sanders, B. Stoeckly, John Verhoogen, John Wheatley, and Eyvind Wichmann.
We thank Carol Tung for the typed manuscript and Sari Wilde for her help with the
index.
Berkeley and Santa Barbara
Charles Kittel
Herbert Kroemer
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