Abstract
The basic principles and concepts of thermodynamics and statistical physics used in the following chapters are presented in Chapter 2. The mathematical formalism relevant to describe thermodynamic systems is considered in detail. The microcanonical, canonical, isothermal–isobaric, and grand canonical ensembles that are a base of equilibrium statistical physics are described. The criteria of macroscopicity necessary to estimate a size of three-, two-, and one-dimensional systems admissible to application of the thermodynamics and statistical physics methods are derived. The equivalence of the thermodynamic quantities of multicomponent alloys obtained by using the microcanonical, canonical, and isothermal–isobaric ensembles is shown. The possibility to use the Helmholtz free energy instead of the Gibbs free energy and vice versa, due to the insignificant difference between them, to consider condensed matter (solids and liquids) is demonstrated. The separated degrees of freedom in the consideration of semiconductor alloys are described.
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