Representation invariant geometrothermodynamics: applications to ordinary thermodynamic systems (Q2448256)

The aim of the geometrothermodynamics program is to construct a Legendre-invariant Riemannian geometric theory to describe the thermodynamic properties of physical systems, e.g., phase transitions. It is assumed that the curvature associated with the metric of the space of equilibrium states is related to the thermodynamic interaction, i.e., a vanishing curvature corresponds to a system with non-interacting components. A singularity of the curvature describes the place of a phase transition. The presented metric of the space of equilibrium states was indeed derived by a previous work of the authors while addressing the problem of the conformal structure of the thermodynamic metrics for different representations [J. Math. Phys. 54, No. 3, 033513, 11 p. (2013; Zbl 1287.80002)]. Thus, the new feature of the metric is that, in addition to Legendre symmetry, it exhibits invariance under a change of the representation. In the present work, a few ordinary thermodynamic systems, i.e., the ideal gas, the van der Waals fluid, the one-dimensional Ising model and some systems of cosmological interest, such as the Chaplygin gas and the dark fluid, are considered applying the newly introduced metric. Performing a detailed analysis it is shown that the metric is indeed invariant under the change of the representation and that it correctly describes the expected thermodynamic behaviour. Thus, the new metric introduced gives the freedom to change thermodynamic representations and to make total Legendre transformations as long as the system is homogeneous.