Statistical Physics

Since the 80’s, laser cooling has enabled the production of sub-milliKelvin dilute atomic gases - which can be further cooled to the nanoKelvin regime.

The first aim of these lectures will be to give a brief overview of the physical and dynamical mechanisms which determine Earth’s climate. We will start with the atmospheric radiative transfer and the energy fluxes provided by the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere and the oceans.

Many physical systems exhibit phase transitions, i.e. abrupt changes in their properties when a parameter crosses a threshold value: a fluid changes from a liquid to a gaseous state at the evaporation temperature, a magnet loses its magnetic properties at the Curie temperature, and so on.

In this course, you will learn tools and ideas developed by statistical physics to deal with "complex systems". These tools can be used in different contexts, including economics and social sciences where the modelling of collective phenomena, crises, panics, and discontinuities, is more necessary than ever.