Question: Consider fully thermalized electromagnetic radiation at temperature T , for which the mean occupation number has the standard Planck (blackbody) form = 1/(e x
Consider fully thermalized electromagnetic radiation at temperature T , for which the mean occupation number has the standard Planck (blackbody) form η = 1/(ex − 1) with x = hν/(kBT).(a) Show that the entropy per mode of this radiation is
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(b) Show that the radiation’s entropy per unit volume can be written as the following integral over the magnitude of the photon momentum:

(c) By performing the integral (e.g., using Mathematica), show that

where U = aT 4 is the radiation energy density, and a = (8π5k4B/15)/(ch)3 is the radiation constant
(d) Verify Eq. (4.39) for the entropy density by using the first law of thermodynamics dE = T dS − PdV
Ss=kB[x/(et - 1) - In(1-e*)].
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a To find the entropy per mode we can start with the definition of entropy as the logarithm of the number of available microstates which for electromagnetic radiation is related to the number of photo... View full answer
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