Statistical Mechanics

Beale, Paul D.Paul D. Beale is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. He earned a B.S. in Physics with Highest Honors at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1977, and Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1982. He served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University from 1982-1984. He joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder in 1984 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1991, and professor in 1997. He served as the Chair of the Department of Physics from 2008-2016. He also served as Associate Dean for Natural Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Director of the Honors Program. He is currently Director of the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, the largest scholarship fundraising event in the State of Colorado. Beale is a theoretical physicist specializing in statistical mechanics, with emphasis on phase transitions and critical phenomena. His work includes renormalization group methods, finite-size scaling in spin models, fracture modes in random materials, dielectric breakdown in metal-loaded dielectrics, ferroelectric switching dynamics, exact solutions of the finite two-dimensional Ising model, solid-liquid phase transitions of molecular systems, and ordering in layers of molecular dipoles. His current interests include scalable parallel pseudorandom number generators, and interfacing quantum randomness with cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators. He is coauthor with Raj Pathria of the third and fourth editions of the graduate physics textbook Statistical Mechanics. The Boulder Faculty Assembly has honored him with the Excellence in Teaching and Pedagogy Award, and the Excellence in Service and Leadership Award. Beale is a private pilot and an avid cyclist. He is married to Erika Gulyas, and has two children: Matthew and Melanie.

Statistical Mechanics, 3e, is an indispensable tool for postgraduate students of science and engineering. Since the first edition published in 1972, Raj Pathria has provided an invaluable resource for the study of physical properties on the basis of dynamic behavior. The book is suitable for a two semester course, offering the theoretical formalism proven to be of immense value to the field of physics. The author has based the book on principles of mathematical statistics and Hamiltonian mechanics. By providing historical insight and approaching the subject uniformly, students are able further their studies of statistical mechanics into their professional careers.

1. The Statistical Basis of Thermodynamics
2. Elements of Ensemble Theory
3. The Canonical Ensemble
4. The Grand Canonical Ensemble
5. Formulation of Quantum Statistics
6. The Theory of Simple Gases
7. Ideal Bose Systems
8. Ideal Fermi Systems
9. Thermodynamics of the Early Universe
10. Statistical Mechanics of Interacting Systems: The Method of Cluster Expansions
11. Statistical Mechanics of Interacting Systems: The Method of Quantized Fields
12. Phase Transitions: Criticality, Universality, and Scaling
13. Phase Transitions: Exact (or Almost Exact) Results for Various Models
14. Phase Transitions: The Renormalization Group Approach
15. Fluctuations and Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
16. Computer Simulations