- #1
aburriu
Homework Statement
I'm reading the book about Statistical Physics from W. Nolting, specifically the chapter about quantum gas.
In the case of a classical ideal gas, we can get the state functions with the partition functions of the three ensembles (microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical). However, in the case of a quantum ideal gas, we can only apply the grand canonical ensemble. Why?
Homework Equations
The Hamilton operator for the whole system is additive:
[ tex ] H = \sum_{i=1}^N H^{(i)} [ /tex ]
where (i) denotes the particle number.
Each particle can be described by the Schrödinger equation:
[ tex ] H^{(i)} |\varphi_k^{(i)}> = \varepsilon_{k} |\varphi_k^{(i)}> [ /tex ]
where the subscript k characterizes the set of quantum numbers (n, l, ml, ms )
The Attempt at a Solution
I'm guessing it has to do with the indistinguishability of the particles. I've read something about the Fock states, but I didn't grasp the concept.