Canonical deformations of surfaces of equilibrium states in thermodynamic phase space
Deformations of submanifolds of thermodynamic equilibrium states introduced by continuous contact maps on a phase-space manifold are considered in terms of the geometrical formulation of thermodynamics. The notion of a contact Hamiltonian is recalled in order to give some possible physical interpretations of such a function in terms of statistical quantities describing initial and deformed systems. Using contact flows we propose a very efficient method for constructing continuous families of thermodynamic systems. A few examples show the possible advantages of using contact Hamiltonians.
Jurkowski
J
Institute of Physics, Nicholas Copernicus University, Grudzi&acedil;dzka 5, 87-100 Torun, Poland.