Classical canonical free energy
Set
| context | $ Z(\beta) $ … canonical partition function (classical or quantum) |
| definiendum | $F(\beta):=-\frac{1}{\beta} \mathrm{ln}(Z(\beta)) $ |
Discussion
This mirrors the Classical microcanonical entropy.
The usage of the free energy is similar to that of the cumulant-generating function.
Reference
Wikipedia: Cumulant-generating function
Context
