Rigorous Bounds for Thermodynamic Properties of Harmonic Solids

Abstract
A procedure for obtaining rigorous bounds to thermal properties of harmonic solids from moments of the frequency distribution is presented, and methods for improving these bounds when low‐frequency expansion coefficients for the frequency distribution function are known are described. The technique is demonstrated by application to a face‐centered‐cubic crystal with nearest‐neighbor interactions, and extremely precise bounds for the thermal properties are obtained.