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The grand canonical partition function applies to a grand canonical ensemble, in which the system can exchange both heat and particles with the environment, at fixed temperature, volume, and chemical potential. Other types of partition functions can be defined for different circumstances; see partition function (mathematics) for
The partition function is commonly used as a probability-generating function for expectation values of various functions of the random variables. So, for example, taking β {\displaystyle \beta } as an adjustable parameter, then the derivative of log ( Z ( β ) ) {\displaystyle \log(Z(\beta ))} with respect to β {\displaystyle \beta }
In other words, each single-particle level is a separate, tiny grand canonical ensemble. By the Pauli exclusion principle, there are only two possible microstates for the single-particle level: no particle (energy E = 0), or one particle (energy E = ε). The resulting partition function for that single-particle level therefore has just two terms:
This enables thermodynamic properties of the gas to be calculated with the use of the partition function or the grand partition function. These results will be applied to both massive and massless particles. More complete calculations will be left to separate articles, but some simple examples will be given in this article.
The total canonical partition function of a system of identical, indistinguishable, noninteracting atoms or molecules can be divided into the atomic or molecular partition functions : [1] =! with: = /, where is the degeneracy of the jth quantum level of an individual particle, is the Boltzmann constant, and is the absolute temperature of system.
In quantum field theory, partition functions are generating functionals for correlation functions, making them key objects of study in the path integral formalism. They are the imaginary time versions of statistical mechanics partition functions , giving rise to a close connection between these two areas of physics.
In statistical mechanics, the translational partition function, is that part of the partition function resulting from the movement (translation) of the center of mass. For a single atom or molecule in a low pressure gas, neglecting the interactions of molecules , the canonical ensemble q T {\displaystyle q_{T}} can be approximated by: [ 1 ]
That is, the number of particles within the overall system that occupy a given single particle state form a sub-ensemble that is also grand canonical ensemble; hence, it may be analysed through the construction of a grand partition function. Every single-particle state is of a fixed energy, .