next up previous
Next: Force on the Up: Pressure in a Previous: Total density of

Energy of the electrons in the box

In this and all subsequent parts of this problem, you need keep only terms to leading order in N. That is you may take, for example, .

Compute the total energy of N>>1 electrons of mass m in a square well of width L assuming that each allowed energy state is occupied by just one electron and that the electrons occupy the lowest available energy states. From your result, give a formula for the kinetic energy energy per particle of an electron gas of constant density .
Hint: Note that your expression for the energy per particle should depend only on the density of electrons. Also, you will find the following sum useful,



Prof. Tomas Alberto Arias
Sat Apr 20 19:52:25 EDT 1996