Derivation of the Maxwellian distribution from the microcanonical

ensemble
Ricardo Lpez-Ruiza
DIIS and BIFI, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain

Xavier Calbetb
Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias, Va Lctea, s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Received 27 November 2006; accepted 13 April 2007

The origin of the Boltzmann factor is revisited. An alternative derivation from the microcanonical
picture is given. The Maxwellian distribution in a one-dimensional ideal gas is obtained by
following this derivation. We also note other possible applications such as the wealth distribution in
human society. 2007 American Association of Physics Teachers.
DOI: 10.1119/1.2737472
We offer an alternative view that can be thought of as an a
priori theoretical argument why the velocity distribution of a
gas of classical particles in equilibrium is the Maxwellian
distribution.1,2 Usually this distribution is derived from the
canonical ensemble formalism; that is, the gas is considered
in thermal equilibrium with a heat reservoir. But we do not
need the concept of temperature to reach the Maxwellian
distribution nor the supposition of binary collisions used in
the Boltzmann equation.3 It can be easily obtained from the
microcanonical ensemble.
We start by assuming a one-dimensional ideal gas of N
non-identical classical particles with masses mi, with i
= 1 , . . . , N, and total energy, E. If particle i has a momentum,
mivi, we define a kinetic energy
K

p2i

1
2
2 m iv i ,

where pi is the square root of the kinetic energy. If the total

energy is defined as E R2, we have
2
p21 + p22 + + pN1
+ pN2 = R2 .

We see that the isolated system evolves on the surface of an

N-sphere. The formula for the surface area SNR of an
N-sphere of radius R is
SNR =

2N/2 N1
R ,
N/2

where is the gamma function. If the ergodic hypothesis is

assumed for this kind of system, it has been proved by
Sinai4 that each state of the microcanonical ensemble that
is, each point on the N-sphere is equiprobable, then the
probability, fpidpi, of finding the particle, i, with coordinate, pi energy p2i , is proportional to the surface area
formed by all the points on the N-sphere having the
ith-coordinate equal to pi. Our objective is to show that fpi
is the Maxwellian distribution, with the normalization condition

fpidpi = 1.

If the ith particle has coordinate pi, the N 1 remaining

particles share the energy R2 p2i on the N 1-sphere
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Am. J. Phys. 75 8, August 2007

http://aapt.org/ajp

2
2
p21 + p22 + + pi1
+ pi+1
+ + pN2 = R2 p2i ,

whose surface area is SN1R2 p2i . If we define the coordinate as satisfying5

R2 cos2 = R2 p2i ,

then
dpi
.
1 p2i /R21/2

Rd =

It can be easily proved that

SNR =

/2

/2

SN1R cos Rd .

Hence, the surface area of the N-sphere for which the ith
coordinate is between pi and pi + dpi is SN1R cos Rd. We
rewrite the surface area as a function of pi, normalize it to
satisfy Eq. 4, and obtain
fpi =

1 SN1R2 p2i
,
SNR 1 p2i /R21/2

whose final form, after some calculation, is

fpi = CNR1 1

p2i
R2

N3/2

10

with
CN =

N/2
N 1/2 .
1

11

For N 1, Stirlings approximation can be applied to Eq.

11, leading to
lim CN

N1

N
.
2

12

If we call the mean energy per particle, E = R2 = N, then in

the limit of large N we have
2007 American Association of Physics Teachers

752

lim 1
N1

p2i
R2

N3/2

epi /2 .

13

The Boltzmann factor epi /2 is found when N 1 but, even

for small N, it can be a good approximation for particles with
low energies. After substituting Eqs. 12 and 13 into Eq.
10, we obtain the Maxwellian distribution in the asymptotic
regime N which also implies E ,
fpdp =

1 p2/2
e
dp,
2

14

where the index i has been removed because the distribution

is the same for each particle, and thus the velocity distribution can be obtained by averaging over all the particles.
Depending on the physical situation, the mean energy per
particle takes different expressions. For an isolated onedimensional gas we can calculate the dependence of on
the temperature, which in the microcanonical ensemble is
defined by differentiating the entropy with respect to the

fpln
energy. The entropy can be written as S = kN
fpdp, where fp is given by Eq. 14 and k is the Boltzmann constant. If we recall that = E / N, we obtain

1
1
E
SE = kN ln
+ kNln2 1.
2
2
N

15

The calculation of the temperature T gives

T1 =

S
E

=
N

kN k
= .
2E 2

16

Thus = kT / 2, consistent with the equipartition theorem. If

p2 is replaced by 21 mv2, the Maxwellian distribution is a
function of particle velocity, as it is usually given in the
literature,
gvdv =

m mv2/2kT
e
dv .
2kT

17

We have shown that the Boltzmann factor describes the

general statistical behavior of each small part of a multicomponent system whose components or parts are given by a
set of random variables that satisfy a conservation law condition 2. The derivation of this factor in the context of the
canonical ensemble could also be performed by following
this approach.
Another example is the distribution of forces in the substrate beneath a sand pile, where the weight of the pile is
conserved.6 Another application is to the distribution of

753

Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 8, August 2007

wealth in human society. It is known that the incomes of

90% of the population in western societies can be fitted by a
exponential distribution.7 This observation would have a
simple explanation if, although unrealistic, we assume that,
at each time, a fixed quantity of wealth or money condition
2 is randomly partitioned among many agents. Then the
probability of finding the relative wealth would be an exponential distribution. The role of the mean energy would be
played in this case by the mean wealth of the population.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is dedicated with gratitude to all our teachers.
a

Electronic address: rilopez@unizar.es

Electronic address: xcalbet@googlemail.es
1
A similar derivation was given in hyper-spherical polar coordinates in X.
Calbet and R. Lopez-Ruiz, Extremum complexity distribution of a monodimensional ideal gas out of equilibrium, Physica A to be published,
or in arXiv:nlin.CD/0609035.
2
A. J. Stam, Limit theorems for uniform distributions on spheres in highdimensional euclidean spaces, J. Appl. Probab. 19, 221228 1982.
When we were writing this note we became aware of this reference Ref.
2, published in the mathematical context of statistics, where our result is
given in a more general form. The abstract of Ref. 2 paper states: If X
= X1 , X2 , . . . , Xn has uniform distribution on the sphere or ball in Rn
with radius a, then the joint distribution of n1/2a1Xi, i = 1 , 2 , . . . , k, converges in total variation to the standard normal distribution on Rk. The
case shown here is k = 1.
3
The kinetic theory approach that gives the evolution of the velocity distribution of a gas of particles out of equilibrium is the Boltzmann equation. The Boltzmann equation takes into account binary collisions and
gives the Maxwellian distribution as a stable fixed point. This result is
called the H-theorem. Ref. 8 It is remarkable that the symmetries imposed by two-body collisions in the asymptotic equilibrium state determine the final distribution, that is, the Maxwellian distribution. Our derivation suggests that binary collisions provide a sufficient dynamical
mechanism for the randomization of the energy among the particles condition 2 and, hence, are sufficient to establish the Boltzmann hypothesis of molecular chaos, which causes a gas to evolve toward equilibrium. We can go further and suggest that mechanisms other than the usual
collisions among particles can also randomize the velocities and bring
them to the Gaussian distribution.
4
Ya. G. Sinai, On the foundations of the ergodic hypothesis for a dynamical system of statistical mechanics, Sov. Math. Dokl. 4, 18181822
1963.
5
H. Bateman, Higher Transcendental Functions McGraw-Hill, New York,
1953, Vol. 2, Chap. XI.
6
R. Brockbank, J. M. Huntley, and R. C. Ball, Contact force distribution
beneath a three-dimensional granular pile, J. Phys. II 7, 15211532
1997.
7
A. Dragulescu and V. M. Yakovenko, Statistical mechanics of money,
Eur. Phys. J. B 17, 723729 2000; Evidence for the exponential distribution of income in the USA, Eur. Phys. J. B 20, 585589 2001.
8
K. Huang, Statistical Mechanics John Wiley & Sons, 1963, Chapter 4,
pp. 6869.

Ricardo Lpez-Ruiz and Xavier Calbet

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