Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / Paper 1 / Section C / C11 / b (internal energy) / Solution

In the harmonic approximation, sum over wavevector $\mathbf{q}$ and phonon branch $s$:The occupation factor is the Bose-Einstein distribution with zero phonon chemical potential; $\frac{1}{2}\hslash \omega$ is the zero-point energy. A temperature-independent zero-point term does not contribute to the heat capacity in this fixed-frequency approximation.