Past exam of the thermal and statistical physics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / Paper 1 / 1 / b

Let $\Delta =\hslash \Omega$ and choose the nondegenerate energy levels as 0 and $\Delta$. For N independent identical units, $Z=(1+e^{-\beta \Delta }{)}^N$; set N=1 for a single two-level system. Differentiating its logarithm givesAt low temperature, $U\sim N\Delta e^{-x}$ and $C_V\sim N{k}_B{x}^2{e}^{-x}$: the upper level is frozen out. At high temperature, the two levels approach equal populations, giving $U\to N\Delta /2$ while $C_V\sim N{k}_B{x}^2/4\to 0$. The energy therefore rises monotonically to a plateau, while the heat capacity has a Schottky peak:Unequal degeneracies would change the populations and peak; the usual equal-degeneracy model is stated here. Shifting both energy levels changes the energy baseline but not heat capacity.