PHYS393: Statistical and Low Temperature Physics Tutorial 3

These questions cover Parts 4 and 5 of the lecture course. Both questions are based on questions from the 2006 examination paper. Please hand solutions to your tutor by noon on Wednesday, 26 November. The following constants may be useful: Plancks constant, h Boltzmann constant, kB Speed of light, c Electron mass, me = 6.631034 Js = 1.381023 J/K = 3.00108 m/s = 9.111031 kg

1. A system is composed of N conduction electrons that move freely within a cube of metal of side length L. (a) Taking account of the spin degeneracy of the electrons, show that the number of states g (k ) dk with wave number k in the range k to k + dk is: g (k ) dk = where the volume V = L3 . (b) Write down the relationship between wave number k and energy . Hence, show that the number of states with energy in the range to + d is: 2V g () d = (2 )2 2m h 2
3 2

2V 4k 2 dk, (2 )3

2 d.

(c) The probability that a state with energy will be occupied by an electron is f (). Sketch graphs of f () versus : (i) for temperature T = 0; (ii) for temperature T such that 0 < T < TF , where TF is the Fermi temperature. Indicate the Fermi energy F . (d) Show that the Fermi energy F is given by: h 2 F = 2m 3 2 N V
2 3

(e) Metallic silver has a molar volume of 10.27 106 m3 , and each atom contributes one electron to the conduction band. Evaluate the Fermi energy F for silver. (f) At temperature T , the total energy U of the electrons can be written: 3 5 U = N F 1 + 5 12

kB T F

Evaluate the electron heat capacity CV for a molar quantity of silver at a temperature of 5 K.

2. (a) Describe what is meant by black body radiation. (b) The density of states g (k ) in terms of wave number k for quantised electromagnetic waves in a cavity of volume V is written as: g (k ) dk = 2V 4k 2 dk. (2 )3

Show that this density of states can be written in terms of the frequency of the waves as: 8V g ( ) d = 3 2 d, c where c is the speed of light. (c) The energy contained in the frequency interval to + d of the radiation is given by: 8V 1 . u( ) d = 3 2 d h h c e kB T 1 Explain the physical signicance of the factors h and [exp(h/kB T ) 1]1 in this expression. (d) Deduce the limiting values of u( ) as 0 and as . (e) Sketch the distribution of u( ) versus . (f) Show that the energy density U/V in the cavity is given by: 8 5 (kB T )4 U = . V 15 (hc)3 (g) Evaluate the energy density U/V at a temperature T = 1000 K. (h) Calculate the temperature at which the energy density is 10 times greater than it is at T = 1000 K. You are given that:
0

y 3 dy 4 = . ey 1 15