Chap.

1: States of a Model System

Each quantum state has a definite energy. States with identical energies are said to
belong to the same energy level. The multiplicity (katlılık) or degeneracy of an energy level is
the number of quantum states with very nearly the same energy. It is the number of quantum
states that is important in thermal physics, not the number of energy levels. We shall
frequently deal with sums over all quantum states. Two states at the same energy must always
be counted as two states, not as one level!

Binary Model Systems

We assume that in the binary model system we consider there are N separate and distinct
sites fixed in space on a line. Attached to each site is an elementary magnet that can point
only up or down, corresponding to magnetic moments ±𝑚. To understand the system means
to count the states. If the magnet points up, we say that the magnetic moment is +m. If the
magnet points down, the magnetic moment is –m.
Now consider N different sites, each of which bears a moment that may assume the
values ±𝑚. Each moment may be oriented in two ways with a probability independent of the
orientation of all other moments. The total number of arrangements of the N moments is 2 x
2 x 2 x … x 2 = 2N. A state of the system is specified by giving the orientation of the moment
on each site; there are 2N states.
The total magnetic moment of our model system of N magnets each of magnetic
moment m will be denoted by M, which will be related to the energy in a magnetic field. The
value of M varies from Nm to –Nm. The set of possible values is given by
M = Nm , (N-2)m , (N-4)m , … , -Nm .
Only one state of a system has the moment M=Nm; that state is obtained when all
magnets point up. There are N states with moment M=(N-2)m, because the magnet whose
spin is flipped may be on any of the N sites.

Enumeration of States and the Multiplicity Function

We use the word spin as a shorthand for elementary magnet. It is convenient to assume that
N is an even number. We need a mathematical expression for the number of states with
1 1
𝑁↑ = 2 𝑁 + 𝑠 magnets up and 𝑁↓ = 2 𝑁 − 𝑠 magnets down, where s is an integer. The
difference

1
 𝑁↑ − 𝑁↓ = 2𝑠
is called the spin excess (spin fazlası).
Using the binomial expansion the symbolic expression becomes
𝑁! 1 1
(↑ +↓)𝑁 ≡ ∑ ↑2𝑁+𝑠 ↓2𝑁−𝑠
1 1
𝑠 (2 𝑁 + 𝑠) ! (2 𝑁 − 𝑠) !

This class of states has spin excess 2m and net magnetic moment 2sm. Let us denote the
number of states in this class by g(N,s) for a system of N magnets:
𝑁! 𝑁!
𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠) = =
1 1 𝑁↑ ! 𝑁↓ !
(2 𝑁 + 𝑠) ! (2 𝑁 − 𝑠) !

We shall call g(N,s) the multiplicity function (katlılık fonksiyonu); it is the number of states
having the same value of s. The reason for our definition emerges when a magnetic field is
applied to the spin system: in a magnetic field, states of different values of s have different
values of the energy, so that our g is equal to the multiplicity of an energy level in a magnetic
field. Until we introduce a magnetic field, all states of the model system have the same energy,
which may be taken as zero. Note that the total number of states is given by
1
𝑠=+ 𝑁
2
∑ 1
𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠) = (1 + 1)𝑁 = 2𝑁
𝑠=− 𝑁
2

Sharpness of the Multiplicity Function

We know from common experience that systems held at constant temperature usually have
well-defined properties; this steadiness of physical properties is a major prediction of thermal
physics. This steadiness follows as a consequence of the exceedingly sharp peak in the
multiplicity function and of the steep variation of that function away from the peak. For a very
large system, i.e. N>>1, the function g(N,s) is peaked very sharply about s=0, that is, |s|<<N.
Except where otherwise specified, all logarithms are understood to be log base e. We
take the logarithm of both sides to obtain
1 1
log 𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠) = log 𝑁! − log ( 𝑁 + 𝑠) ! − log ( 𝑁 − 𝑠) !
2 2
After simplifications and by the expansion of the logarithm when its argument is
approximately 1 we arrive at the following result:

𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠) ≅ 𝑔(𝑁, 0) 𝑒𝑥𝑝(−2𝑠 2 /𝑁)

where

𝑔(𝑁, 0) = (2/𝜋𝑁)1/2 2𝑁 .

2
Such a distribution of values of s is called a Gaussian distribution. The integral of the above
expression for the multiplicity function gives the correct value of 2N for the total number of
states.

3
 1
The above distribution is centered around s=0. When 𝑠 2 = 2 𝑁, the value of g is reduced to
𝑒 −1 of the maximum value. That is, when

𝑠/𝑁 = (1/2𝑁)1/2 ,
The value of g is 𝑒 −1 of g(N,0). The quantity is thus a reasonable measure of the fractional
width of the distribution. When N is very large, the distribution is exceedingly sharply defined,
in a relative sense. It is this sharp peak and the continued sharp variation of the multiplicity
function far from the peak that will lead to a prediction that physical properties of systems in
thermal equilibrium are well defined. We now consider one such property, the mean value of
s 2.

Average Values

The average value, or mean value, of a function f(s) taken over a probability distribution
function P(s) is defined as

𝑓 ̅ = ∑ 𝑓(𝑠) 𝑃(𝑠)
𝑠

provided that the distribution function is normalized to unity:

∑ 𝑃(𝑠) = 1 .
𝑠

The binomial distribution is not normalized to unity. If all states are equally probable, then
𝑃(𝑠) = 𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠)/2𝑁 , and the sum of the probabilities add up to one. The average of f(s) over
this distribution will be

𝑓 ̅ = ∑ 𝑓(𝑠) 𝑔(𝑁, 𝑠)/2𝑁

𝑠

Consider the function f(s)=s2 . We replace the sum Σ over s by an integral ∫ ⋯ 𝑑𝑠

between −∞ and +∞ . Then
+∞
̅̅̅
𝑠 2 = (2/𝜋𝑁)1/2 ∫ 𝑑𝑠 𝑠 2 𝑒𝑥𝑝(−2𝑠 2 /𝑁)
−∞

whence

̅̅̅ 1
𝑠2 = 𝑁
4
The quantity ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
(2𝑠)2 is the mean square spin excess. The root mean square spin excess is

̅̅̅̅̅̅̅2 ]1/2 = √𝑁
[(2𝑠)

and the fractioanl fluctuation in 2s is defined as

4
 ̅̅̅̅̅̅̅2 ]1/2
[(2𝑠) 1
𝐹≡ =
𝑁 √𝑁
The larger N is, the smaller is the fractional fluctuation. This means that the central peak of
the distribution function becomes relatively more sharply defined as the size of the system
increases, the size being measured by the number of sites N.

Energy of the Binary Magnetic System

The thermal properties of the model system become physically relevant when the elementary
magnets are placed in a magnetic field, for then the energies of the different states are no
longer all equal. If the energy of the system is specified, then only the states having this energy
may occur. The energy of interaction of a single magnetic moment m with a fixed external
magnetic field B is
𝑈 = −𝒎 ∙ 𝑩
This is the potential energy of the magnet m in the field B. For the model system of N
elementary magnets, each with two allowed orientations in a uniform magnetic field B, the
total potential energy U is
𝑁 𝑁

𝑈 = ∑ 𝑈𝑖 = − 𝑩 ∙ ∑ 𝒎𝑖 = −2𝑠𝑚𝐵 = −𝑀𝐵
𝑖=1 𝑖=1

using the expression M for the total magnetic moment, also called the magnetization. In this
example the spectrum of values of the energy U is discrete. The value of the energy for
moments that interact only with the external magnetic field is completely determined by the
value of s. This functional dependence is indicated by writing U(s).