本书是“索茉菲理论物理教程”的第五卷，主题是热力学与统计物理。“索末菲理论物理教程”包括力学、变形介质力学、电动力学、光学、热力学与统计物理、物理学中的偏微分方程六卷，是作者给Muenchen大学和理工学院物理专业大三、大四学生讲课的手稿整理而成的。索末菲老师教书是物理数学融合在一起的，关键是他还能实验物理和理论物理一起教。索末菲的教学应该是深刻地影响到了不少人。他的教学非同于一般的教书匠，其教科书里融入了自己的理解还有自己对学术的贡献。索末菲对物理学的贡献是多方面的，即便面对爱因斯坦这样的人物，也未必逊色多少。

Author's Preface
Editor's Preface
Translator's Preface
CHAPTER I.THERMODYNAMICS.GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
1.Temperature as a Property of a System
2.Work and Heat
3.The Perfect Gas
A.Boyle's Law (The Law of Boyle and Mariotte)
B.Charles' Law (The Law of Gay-Lussac)
C.Avogadro's Law and the Universal Gas Constant
4.The First Law.Energy and Enthalpy as Properties
A.Equivalence of Heat and Work
B.The Enthalpy as a Property
C.Digression on the Ratio of Specific Heats cp and cv
5.The Reversible and the Irreversible Adiabatic Process
A.The Reversible Adiabatic Process
B.The Irreversible Adiabatic Process
C.The Joule-Kelvin Porous Plug Experiment
D.A Conclusion of Great Consequence
6.The Second Law
A.The Carnot Cycle and Its Efficiency
B.The First Part of the Second Law
C.The Second Part of the Second Law
D.Simplest Numerical Examples
E.Remarks on the Literature of the Second Law
F.On the Relative Rank of Energy and Entropy
7.The Thermodynamic Potentials and the Reciprocity Relations
8.Thermodynamic Equilibria
A.Unconstrained Thermodynamic Equilibrium and Maximum of Entropy
B.An Isothermal and Isobaric System in Unconstrained Thermodynamic Equilibrium
C.Additional Degrees of Freedom in Retarded Equilibrium
D.Extremum Properties of the Thermodynamic Potentials
E.The Theorem on Maximum Work
9.The van der Waals Equation
A.Course of Isotherms
B.Entropy and the Caloric Behavior of the van der Waals Gas
10.Remarks on the Liquefaction of Gases According to van der Waals
A.The Integral and the Differential Joule-Thomson Effect
B.The Inversion Curve and Its Practical Utilization
C.The Boundary of the Region of Co-existing Líquid-Vapor Phases in the p, v Plane
11.The Kelvin Temperature Scale
12.Nernst's Third Law of Thermodynamics
CHAPTER II.THE APPLICATION Of THERMODYNAMICS TO SPECIAL SYSTEMS
13.Gaseous Mixtures.Gibbs' Paradox.The Law Due to Guldberg and Waage
A.Reversible Separation of Gases
B.The Increase in Entropy During Diffusion and Gibbs' Paradox
C.The Law of Mass Action Due to Guldberg and Waage
14.Chemical Potentials and Chemical Constants
A.The Chemical Potentials Hi
B.Relation Between the ui's and the gi's for Ideal Mixtures
C.The Chemical Constant of a Perfect Gas
15.Dilute Solutions
A.General and Historical Remarks
B.Van 't Hoff's Equation of State for Dilute Solutions
16.The Different Phases of Water.Remarks on the Theory of the Steam Engine
A.The Vapor-Pressure Curve and Clapeyron's Equation
B.Phase Equilibrium Between Ice and Water
C.The Specific Heat of Saturated Steam
17.General Remarks on the Theory of Phase Equilibria
A.The Triple Point of Water
B.Gibbs' Phase Rule
C.Raoult's Laws for Dilute Solutions
D.Henry's Law of Absorption (1803)
18.The Electromotive Force of Galvanic Cells
A.Electrochemical Potentials
B.The Daniell Cell, 1836
C.Contraction of Individual Reactions into a Simplified Overall Reaction
D.The Gibbs-Helmholtz Fundamental Equation
E.Numerical Example
F.Remarks on the Integration of the Fundamental Equation
19.Ferro- and Paramagnetism
A.Work of Magnetization and Magnetic Equation of State
B.Langevin's Equation for Paramagnetic Substances
C.The Theory of Ferromagnetic Phenomena Due to Weiss
D.The Specific Heats cH and cM
E.The Magneto-Caloric Effect
20.Black Body Radiation
A.Kirchhoff's Law
B.The Stefan-Boltzmann Law
C.Wien's Law
D.Planck's Law of Radiation
21.Irreversible Processes.Thermodynamics of Near-Equilibrium Processes
A.Conduction of Heat and Local Entropy Generation
B.The Conduction of Heat in an Anisotropic Body and Onsager's
Reciprocal Relations
C.Thermoelectric Phenomena
D.Internal Transformations
E.General Relations
F.Limita