How does geometry affect quantum gases?

Abstract

In this work, we study the thermodynamic functions of quantum gases confined to spaces of various shapes, namely, a sphere, a cylinder and an ellipsoid. We start with the simplest situation, namely, a spinless gas treated within the canonical ensemble framework. As a next step, we consider noninteracting gases (fermions and bosons) with the usage of the grand canonical ensemble description. For this case, the calculations are performed numerically. We also observe that our results may possibly be applied to Bose–Einstein condensate and to helium dimer. Moreover, the bosonic sector, independently of the geometry, acquires entropy and internal energy greater than for the fermionic case. Finally, we also devise a model allowing us to perform analytically the calculations in the case of interacting quantum gases, and, afterwards, we apply it to a cubical box.