Phys. Rev. E 64, 066105 (2001) [8 pages]Partition functions in statistical mechanics, symmetric functions, and group representationsReceived 24 June 2001; published 13 November 2001 Partition functions for noninteracting particles are known to be symmetric functions. It is shown that powerful group-theoretical techniques can be used not only to derive these relationships, but also to significantly simplify calculation of the partition functions for particles that carry internal quantum numbers. The partition function is shown to be a sum of one or more group characters. The utility of character expansions in calculating the partition functions is explored. Several examples are given to illustrate these techniques. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.64.066105
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.64.066105
PACS:
05.30.Ch, 05.30.Fk, 05.30.Jp, 03.65.Fd
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