SUBJECT

Title

Nonequilibrium statistical physics

Type of instruction

lecture

Level

master

Part of degree program
Credits

3

Recommended in

Semester 2

Typically offered in

Spring semester

Course description

Theory of linear response: Correlation and response functions. Analytic properties, excitations. Classical limit. Dissipation. Fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Consequences of microscopic time reversibility symmetry. Transport processes: electronic conductivity. Cross section in neutron scattering. Characterization of stochastic processes, Marcov-processes. Diffusive processes: Fokker-Planck equation, stochastic differential equations. Applications in physics: Brownian motion, hydrodynamic fluctuations, Onsager relations. Jump processes: Master equation. Stability of the stationary distribution, H-theorem. Basics of the Monte Carlo method. The Boltzmann equation. Relaxation time approximation. Applications in physics.

Readings

recommended readings:

  • Robert Zwanzig: Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Oxford University Press 2001
  • W. Brenig: Statistical theory of heat – Nonequilibrium phenomena, Springer Verlag, 1989.