Lesson 25

1. The figure shows the behavior of the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions as functions of e-m, in units of t.

What happens (physically, not just mathematically) to cause f_BE(e) to approach infinity as the energy approaches the chemical potential?

Enter your answer here:

2. For room temperature, estimate f_FD(e), f_BE(e), and the ratio of f_BE/f_FD for

(a) (e-m) = .002 eV
(b) (e-m) = .02 eV
(c) (e-m) = .2 eV

Enter your answer here:

3. Back to degenerate Fermi systems... Given the low temperature behavior of the heat capacity for potassium as shown in Figure 7.9 of the text, at about what temperature T does the contribution due to the electrons equal the contribution due to the lattice vibration?

Check the correct answer:
a) 2.6 K
b) 2.1 K
c) 0.9 K
d) 0.8 K

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