Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-thermal-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/4/solution
Past exam of the thermal physics course of the University of Oxford 2016 4 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
A magnetic field favors alignment of the magnetic moments of a paramagnet, reducing the number of substantially occupied magnetic configurations at fixed temperature. Its magnetic entropy therefore decreases as the field magnitude increases, explaining the negative sign of .
Choose the magnetic Helmholtz free energy convention . Equality of its mixed partial derivatives gives the magnetic Maxwell relationThe magnetic moment inferred from an entropy derivative, integrated at fixed , isThe given entropy derivative alone cannot determine the temperature-independent function . With the usual independent-paramagnet condition as at fixed , , giving Curie's law, . The sketch uses that additional condition. The inverse- expression applies in the weak-field regime; its divergence cannot describe the actual low-temperature saturation of a finite set of magnetic moments.
For reversible quasistatic thermal isolation, . With positive field-dependent heat capacity ,Reducing a positive therefore lowers : this is adiabatic demagnetization. Equivalently, reducing cools for either field sign. Reduced alignment would raise magnetic entropy at fixed ; cooling compensates so total entropy remains constant. Insulation without reversibility would allow additional entropy production and need not follow this adiabat exactly.
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