This course introduces the foundations of statistical mechanics to students with a strong mathematics and physics background, who are contemplating a major in Physics or interested in a rigorous treatment of physics. The main contents include the zeroth, first, second and third laws, thermodynamical potentials and Legendre transformation, phase coexistence and phase transition, thermodynamical stability, statistical distribution of almost independent systems, and others.

CILO-1: Interpret the zeroth, first, second and third laws of thermodynamics. CILO-2: Describe the concepts of heat and work, heat capacity, Carnot theorem, phase transition, and entropy. CILO-3: Apply the equilibrium thermodynamics, thermodynamic potentials, density of states to solve microscopic physics problem. CILO-4: Use different statistical distributions to describe different physical systems.