Statistical mechanics connects microscopic chemical properties to macroscopic, thermodynamic properties. Your goal in this course is to develop tools to analyze, calculate, and predict such properties (e.g., phase equilibria, equilibrium constants, rates, and free energies) from microscopic molecular information. The first part of this course will focus on constructing statistical ensembles and highlighting the implications of those ensembles for thermodynamic properties. We will first cover phenomenology, describing the laws of thermodynamics and stability, and then we will build from the ground up, starting with quantum mechanics. In the second half of the quarter, we will focus on kinetics in the gas phase and liquid phase. You will seek to master strategies for dealing with the complexity of molecular interactions, from approximations like mean-field theory to numerical techniques like molecular dynamics. We will study both diffusion limited and activated processes, with the objective of highlighting the role of statistical fluctuations in reactivity. By the end of the course, the goal is that you will have a sense of the extraordinary information contained in partition functions, and you will be able to use analytical and numerical techniques to make predictions about the thermodynamics and kinetics of equilibrium chemical systems.

Course Notes

The complete set of course notes can be found here.

Throughout the course, we will use Python-based jupyter notebooks to illustrate concepts. Links will be posted on this page throughout the quarter.

Calendar

Assignments

All homework is due at 12:30pm sharp. There will be an assignment due roughly every Wednesday. Submit your homework on gradescope. Assignments will be posted each Wednesday at 6pm PST.

Syllabus and other information

The syllabus is here. An outline of the course materials, including suggested textbooks and external resources, can be found here. Finally, the grading policy for the course is here.

Lecture Recordings