| Part | Chapter Themes | Core Topics | |------|----------------|-------------| | | • Foundations of heat and work • The first and second laws • Thermodynamic potentials | Exact differentials, Maxwell relations, Legendre transforms, Carnot cycles, entropy production | | II. Statistical Foundations | • Microscopic description of systems • Ensembles (microcanonical, canonical, grand canonical) • Partition function formalism | Boltzmann factor, equipartition theorem, fluctuations, thermodynamic limit | | III. Applications & Advanced Topics | • Phase transitions and critical phenomena • Quantum statistics (Bose‑Einstein, Fermi‑Dirac) • Non‑equilibrium processes | Landau theory, critical exponents, transport coefficients, irreversible thermodynamics |
Unlike modern, over-illustrated textbooks, Brijlal & Subramaniam sticks to a proven formula:
Each chapter includes worked examples ranging from ideal gases and heat engines to magnetic systems and photon gases. These examples demonstrate how the formalism adapts to diverse physical contexts.