Thermal physics deals with the study of the behaviour of matter at a macroscopic level, specifically in relation to temperature, heat, and energy. It encompasses a wide range of phenomena, from the thermal properties of solids, liquids, and gases, to the principles of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and statistical mechanics.
Topics include:
Temperature and the zeroth law of thermodynamics
Heat, work, internal energy, and the first law
The Carnot cycle, the second law, and entropy
The third law
Thermodynamic potentials; derivation of thermodynamic relationships
Introduction to phase transitions
Kinetic theory of gases: the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, the virial expansion, van der Waals equation
Introduction to statistical mechanics: concept of ensembles; statistical definition of entropy; Boltzmann distribution; partition function; atomic and molecular partition functions
The quantum ideal gas: Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions