Classical and Quantum Thermal Physics

Covering essential areas of thermal physics, this book includes kinetic theory, classical thermodynamics, and quantum thermodynamics. The text begins by explaining fundamental concepts of the kinetic theory of gases, viscosity, conductivity, diffusion, and the laws of thermodynamics and their applications. It then goes on to discuss applications of thermodynamics to problems of physics and engineering. These applications are explained with the help of P-V and P-S-H diagrams where necessary and are followed by a large number of solved examples and unsolved exercises. The book includes a dedicated chapter on the applications of thermodynamics to chemical reactions. Each application is explained by taking the example of an appropriate chemical reaction, where all technical terms are explained and complete mathematical derivations are worked out in steps starting from the first principle.

List of figures; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgement; Dedication; 1. The kinetic theory of gases; 2. Ideal to real gas, viscosity, conductivity and diffusion; 3. Thermodynamics: definitions and Zeroth law; 4. First Law of Thermodynamics and some of its applications; 5. Second Law of Thermodynamics and some of its applications; 6. TdS equations and their applications; 7. Thermodynamic functions, potentials, Maxwell equations, the Third Law and equilibrium; 8. Some applications of thermodynamics to problems of physics and engineering; 9. Application of thermodynamics to chemical reactions; 10. Quantum thermodynamics; 11. Some applications of quantum thermodynamics; 12. Introduction to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes; Index.

R. Prasad is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the Aligarh Muslim University, India, where he has served for forty-three years. During that time, he was Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Experimental Physics, as well as Chairman of the Department of Physics and Dean of the Faculty of Science. He has taught courses on nuclear physics, thermal physics, electronics, quantum mechanics and modern physics at graduate and postgraduate level. His area of specialization is experimental nuclear physics and he has published more than 175 papers in national and international journals. Prasad carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Hamburg, Germany as DAAD fellow, at the Swiss Institute of Nuclear Research (SIN) Switzerland as visiting professor, at the Atom Institute of Technical University of Vienna, Austria as invited guest professor, at the Abduls Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Triest, Italy, and at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), India.