Semi-classical and quantum description of an ideal Bose gas in a uniform gravitational field
Abstract
We consider an ideal Bose gas contained in a cylinder in three spatial
dimensions, subjected to a uniform gravitational field. It has been claimed by
some authors that there is discrepancy between the semi-classical and quantum
calculations in the thermal properties of such a system. To check this claim,
we calculate the heat capacity and isothermal compressibility of this system
semi-classically as well as from the quantum spectrum of the density of states.
The quantum calculation is done for a finite number of particles. We find good
agreement between the two calculations when the number of particles are taken
to be large. We also find that this system has the same thermal properties as
an ideal five dimensional Bose gas.