Quantum Mechanical and Classical State Densities

Abstract

According to standard statistical approach to thermodynamics (cf. Sect. 3.3) all equilibrium properties of a system may be inferred from, e.g., the entropy given as a function of all extensive variables. The "entropy function," however, depends on the density of states. Thermodynamic properties of systems which are fundamentally quantum are often well described by computations based on classical models. Thus the question arises whether quantum mechanical and classical state densities are generally similar for given systems (that have a classical counterpart). In this section we analyze this question in some detail. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.