PHYS 414


Foundations of Statistical Mechanics, Spring 2026

                


Lecture Notes


(1) 1-12-26: Course overview; introduction to nonequilibrium thermodynamics: Video, Slides.

(2) 1-14-26: Course overview continued, coarse-graining: Video.
                    Coarse-graining physical systems (micro- vs. macro-states, seven ways of looking at a protein, turtles all the way down): Slides.

(3) 1-16-26: Trajectories and ensembles, the basics of probability theory, Bayes' rule: Video, Notes.

(4) 1-21-26: Understanding Bayes' rule: posterior, prior, and likelihood; fitting models to data: Video, Notes.

(5) 1-23-26: Application of Bayesian model fitting: dense neural networks: Video, Notes.

(6) 1-28-26: The Markovian assumption and its consequences: calculating the probabilities of trajectories and states, master equation: Video, Notes.