===== Classical canonical free energy ===
==== Set ====
| @#55CCEE: context     | @#55CCEE: $ Z(\beta) $ ... canonical partition function (classical or quantum) |
| @#FFBB00: definiendum | @#FFBB00: $F(\beta):=-\frac{1}{\beta} \mathrm{ln}(Z(\beta)) $ |

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=== Discussion ===
This mirrors the [[Classical microcanonical entropy]].

The usage of the free energy is similar to that of the cumulant-generating function.
=== Reference ===
Wikipedia: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulant-generating_function|Cumulant-generating function]]

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=== Context ===
[[Classical canonical partition function]], [[Quantum canonical partition function]]