Remarks on Riemannian thermodynamics (Q1195197)

Summary: The postulates of macroscopic thermodynamics give us the possibility to endow the set of thermodynamic states with the structure of a Riemannian manifold. Two alternatives are available: the first one is to introduce on the set of thermodynamic equilibrium states a metric induced by an embedding metric space (extrinsic approach), the second one is to introduce the stability metric (intrinsic approach). Between the two choices the second one looks more promising on the basis of its capability of yielding physical informations. An open problem is however the tensoriality of the stability metric.