With no pairing, the Hamiltonian is diagonal in the fermionic occupation numbers. The Pauli exclusion principle allows each momentum mode to be either empty or occupied once. Without a fixed fermion number constraint, occupying a mode lowers the energy precisely when its single-particle energy is negative. Therefore, with the Fock vacuum, a ground state is
Choose a fixed ordering of the fermionic creation operators; changing it alters only the overall phase. Any zero-energy modes may be occupied or empty without changing the ground-state energy.
To identify the occupied modes, complete the square:
Here is the dispersion parameter, not inverse temperature. If , every mode has positive energy and the unique ground state is the Fock vacuum, with . If , there are still no negative-energy modes, but have zero energy if they lie on the allowed momentum grid. Each such mode doubles the ground-state degeneracy.
For , define
Both are positive, and the occupied Fermi sea consists of the two intervals . With , the requested finite-size ground-state energy is explicitly
The factor two counts opposite momenta. Endpoints are excluded from this sum because they have zero energy; when an endpoint is allowed, its optional occupation adds ground-state degeneracy. A narrow negative-energy interval can contain no allowed finite-size momenta, in which case the sum is empty. The zero-momentum mode is always empty since .
Stipulated vapor-pressure calculation Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Consider an unnamed model substance with molar latent heat and saturation pressure at . Stipulate the ideal-vapor Clausius-Clapeyron approximation throughout , constant , and . These parameters define an illustrative model, not a measured dataset or a fit to water. At ,
At the reference state the gas molar volume is , and the local slope is . The tangent estimate is much lower than the integrated result: a local derivative should not be extrapolated over this whole interval. By contrast, over a small temperature increment, the fractional sensitivity is .
Thermal partition function of a quantum harmonic oscillator Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For a quantum harmonic oscillator with , and inverse temperature , the canonical partition function is . The geometric series gives the displayed formula. Keeping the zero-point energy is essential to its prefactor.
Two-level paramagnetic cooling model Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Use the independent spin-one-half two-level system with fixed distinguishable sites and Hamiltonian levels , where is the magnitude of the field-axis magnetic moment and is a uniform externally controlled magnetic field. Assume positive temperature, no interactions between sites, and no appreciable lattice or load entropy. The two levels differ by . With inverse temperature , the canonical ensemble gives the one-site and total partition functions
Here the minus subscript denotes the lower energy . Factorization of the partition function requires additive energy and independent sites; there is no particle-exchange factor for these fixed distinguishable sites.
Differentiate the partition function, holding fixed when differentiating with respect to . The internal energy, Helmholtz free energy, total field-axis magnetic moment , and magnetic entropy are
The extensive moment is distinct from magnetization, the moment per unit volume. Direct substitution of into the Gibbs entropy gives the same independently of the free-energy derivative.
At fixed , the magnetic heat capacity is
Strict decrease makes invertible on . Constant magnetic entropy therefore fixes , not or separately:
The partition function may be used to label these equilibrium states even though the isolated cooling leg has no external heat bath. Actual thermalization of the lattice and load additionally requires a sufficiently fast spin-lattice relaxation; perfectly uncoupled spins by themselves cannot refrigerate an attached object.
The limiting cases are instructive. For , , , and . The moment response reproduces Curie's law. For , and the upper-state occupation is exponentially small. Taking at fixed gives ; taking at fixed gives . The origin has a path-dependent limit. Extrapolating a line of constant to does not construct a usable zero-temperature state or prove that a real material retains independent degenerate spins there.