Issue 25, 2018

The impact of tensorial temperature on equilibrium thermodynamics

Abstract

Thermodynamic temperature is a scalar. However, the connection with the kinetic energy tensor in statistical mechanics leaves open the possibility to define a tensorial temperature. This concept has sometimes been used to simulate isothermal conditions in out-of-equilibrium systems. Here, we show, by studying a sessile water droplet, that a tensorial temperature leads to the wrong thermodynamics, or, in other words, the equilibrium isothermal ensemble generated using a tensorial temperature is not the canonical one, with interfacial free energies that can differ up to 40% from the correct ones.

Graphical abstract: The impact of tensorial temperature on equilibrium thermodynamics

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
30 mar 2018
Accepted
04 jun 2018
First published
04 jun 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018,20, 16910-16912

The impact of tensorial temperature on equilibrium thermodynamics

M. Sega and P. Jedlovszky, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018, 20, 16910 DOI: 10.1039/C8CP02046A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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