 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Partition function (statistical mechanics). (Discuss) |
The classical configuration integral, more commonly called the partition function, and sometimes referred to as the configurational partition function[1], for a system with 
particles is defined as follows:
-
![\displaystyle
Z_N
:=
\int\limits_V
\exp
\left[
- \beta U (x_1 , \cdots , x_N)
\right]
d^3 x_1 \cdots d^3 x_N](http://wpcontent.answers.com/math/c/8/9/c890ad5b350210cddf75bdac01aa2f3b.png)
(1)
where 
is the volume enclosing the particles, 
a constant defined as
-
(2)
with 
being the Boltzmann constant 
the thermodynamic temperature 
the potential energy of interparticle forces, 
the positions in the 3-D space 
of the particles, with 
and 
the 
coordinate of the 
particle, and 
an infinitesimal volume. The configuration integral has many applications from the ligand-receptor binding affinity in biochemistry to turbulence in fluid mechanics. For a detailed derivation, see the comprehensive article[2].
References
- ^ See, e.g., K. Lucas, Molecular Models for Fluids, Cambridge University Press, 2007 (p.270, Read from Google Book).
- ^ Vu-Quoc, Loc. "Configuration_integral_(statistical_mechanics)". http://clesm.mae.ufl.edu/wiki.pub/index.php/Configuration_integral_(statistical_mechanics). Retrieved 2008-10-12.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
