An atom weakly coupled to a reservoir at temperature with has three non-degenerate states
PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Thermal, Statistical & Complex Systems · Statistical foundations and the equilibrium ensembles · Statistical foundations and the equilibrium ensembles
Thermal Physics, Ch The Boltzmann factor, the canonical ensemble and the partition function
Problem
An atom weakly coupled to a reservoir at temperature T with kBT=ε has three non-degenerate states. Consider two versions of the atom:
((a)) Version A, with energies 0, ε and 2ε: find the probability of each state.
((b)) Version B, in which the middle state is lowered to ε/2 while the other two stay at 0 and 2ε: find the probability of each state.
((c)) By what factor does the probability of the middle state change when it is lowered from ε to ε/2, and does the top state become more or less likely?