FermiGasModel-PurdueUniversity.pptVIP

Degenerate Fermi Gas Fermi gas at low T Most applications are to electons, assume degeneracy g= 2 s +1 = 2 Increase with decreasing T Small enough T, wave functions overlap, quantum statistics becomes important Fermi gas at T=0 No more than 1 (2 for g=2) electrons in each state First “e” goes to lowest state, the second must occupy higher energy state And so on until all the “e”s are put it There “motion” (non-zero energy) of electrons even at T=0 Fermi gas at T=0 Distribution in Fermi gas at T=0 What is μ? Total energy Applicability T Recall, we talked about de Broglie wave length comparable to inter-particle distance. This is exactly the condition. Maxwell-Boltzmann is applicable for opposite inequality. The Fermi Gas of Nucleons in a Nucleus Finite T εF * T=0, beta = infinity energy Occupation number n 1 μ Chemical potential of Fermi gas determined by density only EoS of the type P ~ n^\gamma are called polytropic EoS gamma =5/3 for Fermi gas Let’s apply these results to the system of nucleons in a large nucleus (both protons and neutrons are fermions). In heavy elements, the number of nucleons in the nucleus is large and statistical treatment is a reasonable approximation. We need to estimate the density of protons/neutrons in the nucleus. The radius of the nucleus that contains A nucleons: Thus, the density of nucleons is: For simplicity, we assume that the # of protons = the # of neutrons, hence their density is The Fermi energy The average kinetic energy in a degenerate Fermi gas = 0.6 of the Fermi energy - the nucleons are non-relativistic EF kBT – the system is strongly degenerate. The nucleons are very “cold” – they are all in their ground state! Empty states are available only above (or within ~ kBT ) of the Fermi energy, thus a very small fraction of electrons can be excited The electrons with energies ? EF - (few) kBT cannot interact with anything unless this excitation is capable of What happens as we raise T, but keep kBTEF so th