How Can Phonons, Einstein & Debye Models Explain the Dulong-Petit Law?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the relationship between phonons, the Einstein and Debye models, and the Dulong-Petit Law, particularly focusing on the heat capacity derivation using the partition function.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to differentiate the logarithm of the partition function with respect to beta and is uncertain about manipulating the integral involving exponential functions. They question the imposition of the normalizing integral condition and the timing for applying the large temperature limit.
  • Some participants suggest using a series expansion for the logarithm in the high temperature limit, where beta is small compared to the energy scale.
  • There is a discussion about approximating terms within the logarithm and whether certain terms vanish or if the approximation is valid.

Discussion Status

Participants are actively engaging with the original poster's questions, providing suggestions for series expansions and clarifying the conditions under which certain approximations may hold. There is no explicit consensus yet, as various interpretations and approaches are being explored.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes considerations of high temperature limits and the implications of beta being small compared to energy scales, which are crucial for the analysis being conducted.

Sekonda
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Hey,

My question is on Phonons, the Einstein & Debye models and the Dulong Petit Law. The question is displayed below:

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I am told how to get to the heat capacity by using the logarithm of the partition function 'Z', and so I set about differentiating the logarithm of Z with respects to Beta twice.

However I'm unsure if I can manipulate the logarithm present in the integral (the one with the exponential functions with exponents BetaxE) to take on some other form which would allow the integration & differentiation to be simpler.

I'm not sure how I impose the normalizing integral condition and not sure how to use the normalizing integral with the integral displayed to the left of it. Also when to impose the 'large T' - I presume after differentiation and integrating?

Cheers guys!
S
 
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The high temperature limit would be beta very small compared to the energy scale of the problem, i.e. beta Lambda << 1, so that beta E << 1 for the entire integral. Then try a series expansion on the log.
 
Thanks for the quick reply!

So I differentiate he partition function with respects to beta twice, then integrate, impose small beta then taylor expand?
 
I've managed to attain that the term inside the logarithm can be approximated by 1/(betaE),
however substituting this into the lnZ equation gives me one term I want and another term like :
∫dEg(e)lnE

does this vanish? Or is my approximation wrong of 1/(betaE)?

Thanks again!
 
Is the series expansion for the logarithm \LARGE \frac{1}{\beta E}
 

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