Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-condensed-matter-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/2/c/solution
Past exam of the condensed matter physics course of the University of Oxford 2018 2 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Monovalency gives one electron per atom, so the two-spin-state band is half filled. At zero temperature, occupying gives . HenceRelative to the band minimum, the Fermi energy is .
The density of states obeys . At , the Fermi-Dirac distribution satisfiesPairing the energies above and below the band centre therefore leaves exactly half of the two available states per atom occupied, at every positive temperature. Increasing strictly increases the mean particle number, so this solution at fixed half filling is unique. ConsequentlyThis particle-hole symmetry of a half-filled bipartite band argument uses the symmetric tight binding band and fixed half filling; it is not a general temperature-independence property of chemical potential in metals with additional bands or an asymmetric density of states.
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