- #1
soviet1100
- 50
- 16
Hello!
Dr. David Tong, in his statistical physics notes, derives the Boltzmann distribution in the following manner.
He considers a system (say A) in contact with a heat reservoir (say R) that is at a temperature T. He then writes that the number of microstates of the combined system (A and R) is
[itex] \Omega (E_{total}) = \sum\nolimits_{n} \Omega_{R}(E_{total}-E_n) [/itex]
where the summation is over all states of the system A (states of A are labelled as |n>, each of which has energy E_n )
Can anyone help me understand how he arrives at the equation above? What about the microstates of the system A itself? I was of the understanding that the number of microstates of the composite system would be
[itex] \Omega (E_{total}) = \Omega_{R}(E_{total}-E_{n})\,. \Omega_{A}(E_{n}) [/itex]
Grateful for any help, thanks!
Dr. David Tong, in his statistical physics notes, derives the Boltzmann distribution in the following manner.
He considers a system (say A) in contact with a heat reservoir (say R) that is at a temperature T. He then writes that the number of microstates of the combined system (A and R) is
[itex] \Omega (E_{total}) = \sum\nolimits_{n} \Omega_{R}(E_{total}-E_n) [/itex]
where the summation is over all states of the system A (states of A are labelled as |n>, each of which has energy E_n )
Can anyone help me understand how he arrives at the equation above? What about the microstates of the system A itself? I was of the understanding that the number of microstates of the composite system would be
[itex] \Omega (E_{total}) = \Omega_{R}(E_{total}-E_{n})\,. \Omega_{A}(E_{n}) [/itex]
Grateful for any help, thanks!