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Physics 5524 - Statistical Physics: University of Central Florida - Department of Physics

The Gibbs distribution provides the probability of a system being in a particular microscopic state based on its energy. It can be derived from the microcanonical distribution by considering a small subsystem of interest and integrating over the states of the larger medium. The resulting Gibbs distribution gives the probability as proportional to an exponential of the subsystem's energy divided by temperature. For classical systems, the Gibbs distribution leads to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for particle momenta. The free energy of a system can also be related to its Gibbs distribution and partition function.

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13 views2 pages

Physics 5524 - Statistical Physics: University of Central Florida - Department of Physics

The Gibbs distribution provides the probability of a system being in a particular microscopic state based on its energy. It can be derived from the microcanonical distribution by considering a small subsystem of interest and integrating over the states of the larger medium. The resulting Gibbs distribution gives the probability as proportional to an exponential of the subsystem's energy divided by temperature. For classical systems, the Gibbs distribution leads to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for particle momenta. The free energy of a system can also be related to its Gibbs distribution and partition function.

Uploaded by

Firoz Khan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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University of Central Florida Department of Physics

Physics 5524 Statistical Physics


Spring 2016

Lecture 7, February 2
The Gibbs distribution
The Gibbs distribution.
Dividing the system on small (but macroscopic) body E, d and the rest, medium, E, d for the
system with total energy E one can write down the microcanonical distribution dw constant
E E
E dd. Let us find the probability of the state of whole system
to be such
that the small system of interest is in quantum state . The microscopic state of the medium is
not important, we assume it is to be in a definite macroscopic state with the statistical weight
and the corresponding energy range E. Then putting in the last equation
, d 1, one
gets w
constant
E
E
E d. Let
be total number of states with the energy
not larger than . Then the integration in the last equation can be change to integration over
by using d
E dE

dE

dE

constant

. Since E E , one can expand

constant

(p.4), one gets w

, and put E

E
E

in powers of E

E in E , which makes E a E -

independent constant. This gives









(the Gibbs distribution or canonical distribution).

The normalization constant A can be found from w


f w .
,

1, and the average quantities f

the classical Gibbs distribution.

The Gibbs distribution is also valid for a closed system, with no thermostat. Only in the case of a
medium one needs to take the fluctuations into account.
The Maxwellian distribution.
In the classical physics, the energy is the sum of the kinetic and potential energies. Therefore,
dw
dw

Ae
be

dpdq. Probability for the coordinates dw

ae

dq and for the momenta

dp are independent. Let us consider the distribution for the momenta. In the

classical physics it does not depend on the external fields and the interaction between the bodies,
and momenta of other bodies. Using K p

and the normalization gives

One can separate the term corresponding to the translational motion of the system as a whole.
v e

One can easily obtain v

dv

. Therefore,

the average classical kinetic energy.

The free energy in Gibbs distribution.


Since S

log w

, one gets log A

log A

. Therefore,

Since w

1,

Similarly, in the classical case,


,

For the identical atoms

,
d

d.

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