Name: Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
ISBN: 9781461208280

Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics

Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics covers: Thermodynamics - basic definitions of thermodynamics, equilibrium, state variables - the first and second laws - phase transitions and chemical reactions - thermodynamic potentials Statistical Mechanics - statistics of microscopic states and connection to the entropy - the microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical ensembles - applications of Boltzmann statistics Quantum Statistics - the density operator - many-particle wave functions - ideal quantum systems - the ideal Bose gas and applications to blackbody radiation, Kirchhoff's law, and lattice vibrations - the ideal Fermi gas and applications to condensed-matter physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics - relativistic Bose and Fermi gases and applications to particle

What Hacker News says

disambiguationSep 2024

    1.1 INTRODUCTION: THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS OF THE PERFECT GAS

    Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.

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godelskiMar 2020

I'll second Griffiths for E&M, Quantum, and Particle. I think everyone that has gone through a physics undergrad will swear by Griffiths. He is just such a delight.

But I'll suggest Marion and Thornton [0] for Classical. With Griffiths for E&M and Thornton for Classical you should be able to get a really good grasp on most of "physics". I'll also say that these series are upper division for undergrads. Given OP's background I think these would be fine starting points. If not, start with Halliday[1].

For grad level, the gold standard is Goldstein for Classical [2] and Jackson for Electrodynamics[3].

These types of books will give you a very strong base in physics and should enable you to branch out. Given your ML background you may be very interested in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.

I'll also add an "out there" idea. Sign up for physics classes at your local community college if they offer labs. I say this as someone who went Physics -> CS and is doing HPC + ML. Labs really stress and force you to do analysis. Lower division labs won't ask too much, but if you go in with this intent I think you can get a lot out of it. I'm sure that if you did these lower div labs and talked to a professor at your local uni they would allow you to sit in on upper division labs (you would NEED to show that you are serious first, because these labs can be dangerous! Happy to help you learn doesn't mean happy to babysit and make sure you don't electrocute yourself or making sure you don't take a laser to the eye. TAing undergrad labs I saw enough people get electrocuted, including myself... more than once).

[0] https://smile.amazon.com/Classical-Dynamics-Particles-System...

[1] https://www.smile.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Physics-10th-David...

[2] https://smile.amazon.com/Classical-Mechanics-Goldstein-Poole...

[3] https://smile.amazon.com/Classical-Electrodynamics-Third-Dav...

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ergoproxyFeb 2014

Direct pdf link: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/qm/389.pdf

N.B. this is a grad level course. The same author has another set of notes on QM intended for upper-division undergraduate physics majors here: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/qmech/qmech.pdf

He also has an intermediate level course on Thermodynamics & Statistical Mechanics here: http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/sm1/statmech.pdf

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