Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 34D b iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Differentiating the grand potential givesA reversible adiabatic change in an isolated gas keeps and fixed. To infer constant , one must check that this ratio is one-to-one, rather than merely assuming it.
Put , , and for . Integration by parts gives and , andThe strict inequality is the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for the positive weight , since is not constant on its support. This proves strict monotonicity of Fermi gas entropy per particle and hence is constant. Then gives constant, and givesThis adiabatic scaling of a Fermi gas with power-law density of states concerns positive temperature; the zero-temperature limit is a separate limiting case.