Algebraic theory of the chemical potential and the condition of reactive equilibrium (Q1058709)

Situations of thermal equilibrium of large systems with different chemical species and no chemical reactions between them can be described by (i) a field algebra \({\mathcal M}\) (a type-III factor with a faithful \(\sigma\)-weakly continuous ergodic action \(r\to \alpha_ r\) of the space translation group \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3);\) (ii) a faithful \(\sigma\)-weakly continuous action \(g\to \gamma_ g,g\in {\mathcal G}\), of a compact Abelian gauge group \({\mathcal G}={\mathcal T}^ n\) reflecting the existence of n different chemical species, and commuting with the space translations: \(\alpha \circ \gamma =\gamma \circ \alpha;\) (iii) a \(type\)-III\({}_ 1\) factor of observables \({\mathcal N}\subset {\mathcal M}\) (the gauge invariant part of \({\mathcal M}:{\mathcal N}={\mathcal M}^{\gamma});\) (iv) a time evolution \(t\to \tau_ t\) (a \(\sigma\)-weakly continuous one- parameter group of automorphisms of \({\mathcal M}\) commuting with space translations and gauge automorphisms: \(\tau \circ \gamma =\gamma \circ \tau\), \(\tau \circ \alpha =\alpha \circ \tau);\) (v) a thermodynamical equilibrium state \(\omega\) (an \(\alpha_ r\)- invariant \(\tau_ t\)-1-KMS state \(\omega\) on \({\mathcal N}).\) It then turns out that \(\omega\) can be extended to an \(\alpha_ t\cdot \gamma^{(1)}_{\mu_ 1t}\cdot \gamma^{(2)}_{\mu_ 2t}...\gamma^{(n)}_{\mu_ nt}\)-KMS-state on \({\mathcal M}\) where the \(\gamma^{(i)}\) are the gauge automorphisms and the \(\mu_ i\) are the chemical potentials corresponding to the respective chemical species. [\textit{H. Araki}, \textit{D. Kastler, M. Takesaki, R. Haag}, Commun. Math. Phys. 53, 97-124 (1977); the author, Fortschr. Phys. 30, 1-73 (1982)]. In the article under review the theory is generalized to systems with chemical reactions by assuming (iv)' a time evolution \(t\to \tau_ t\) commuting with space translatins and gauge automorphisms from a closed, connected proper subgroup \({\mathcal G}_ r\) of \({\mathcal G}\), dim \({\mathcal G}_ r=m;\) (v)' a thermodynamical equilibrium state \(\omega\) on \({\mathcal M}^{\gamma_ r}\), i.e., a \(\tau_ t\)-1-KMS state on \({\mathcal M}^{\gamma_ r}\), the fixed-point algebra under the action of \({\mathcal G}_ r\); instead of (iv) and (v) before. It is shown that chemical potentials can be defined in an analogous way. The chemical potentials, however, are no longer independent but fulfill conditions of reactive equilibrium \(\sum_{j}q_{ij}\mu_ j=0,i=1,2,...,n-m\) where the \(q_{ij}\) can be regarded as stoichiometric coefficients, and where n-m is the number of independent chemical reactions. As a direct consequence of the compactness of the gauge group it arises that the \(q_{ij}\) are integers.