Hard disks and spheres
Werner Krauth · Statistical mechanics · 2006
Abstract In the first chapter of this book, we considered simple problems in statistics: pebbles on the beach, needles falling but never rolling, and people strolling on heliports by night. We now move on to study model systems in physics-particles with positions, velocities, and interactions-that obey classical equations of motion. To understand how physical systems can be treated with the tools of statistics and simulated with Monte Carlo methods, we shall consider the hard-sphere model, which lies at the heart of statistical mechanics. Hard spheres, which are idealizations of billiard balls, in free space or in a box, behave as free particles when ever they are not in contact with other particles or with walls, and obey simple reflection rules on contact.