The University of Queensland

 

 

Centre for Mathematical Physics

 

 

SEMINAR

 

 

Speaker:          Matt Davis, Physics, UQ

 

Title:           Temperature via microcanonical Hamiltonian dynamics

 

11am, Wednesday 25th October, 2006

Priestley  Blding, room 140

 

Abstract:

 

How do you measure the temperature of a microcanonical system?  The well known result from statistical mechanics is that the inverse temperature comes from the partial derivative of the entropy with respect to the energy.  However, it is rather difficult (impossible?) to calculate the entropy for any realistic system, let alone any derivatives.


In 1997 Rugh used a neat trick to derive an expression for the inverse temperature as an ensemble average of a function of the Hamiltonian for a classical system.  The really useful part is that if you can assume the system is ergodic, then you can measure the temperature from the dynamics.

In this talk I will discuss this result, and show how it has been useful for calculations of degenerate Bose gases at finite temperatures.

 

 

All interested are invited to attend.

Enquiries to Katrina Hibberd email: keh@maths.uq.edu.au