On the Chemical Potential of Ideal Fermi and Bose Gases

Abstract

Knowledge of the chemical potential is essential in application of the Fermi–Dirac and the Bose–Einstein distribution functions for the calculation of properties of quantum gases. We give expressions for the chemical potential of ideal Fermi and Bose gases in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions in terms of inverse polylogarithm functions. We provide Mathematica functions for these chemical potentials together with low- and high-temperature series expansions. In the 3d Bose case we give also expansions about TB. The Mathematica routines for the series allow calculation to arbitrary order.