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Gibbs volume entropy is incorrect

Robert H. Swendsen and Jian-Sheng Wang
Phys. Rev. E 92, 020103(R) – Published 21 August 2015

Abstract

We show that the expression for the equilibrium thermodynamic entropy contains an integral over a surface in phase space, and in so doing, we confirm that negative temperature is a valid thermodynamic concept. This demonstration disproves the claims of several recent papers that the Gibbs entropy, which contains an integral over a volume in phase space, is the correct definition and that thermodynamics cannot be extended to include negative temperatures. We further show that the Gibbs entropy fails to satisfy the postulates of thermodynamics and that its predictions for systems with nonmonotonic energy densities of states are incorrect.

  • Received 2 July 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.020103

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Robert H. Swendsen*

  • Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA

Jian-Sheng Wang

  • Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117551, Republic of Singapore

  • *swendsen@cmu.edu
  • phywjs@nus.edu.sg

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Vol. 92, Iss. 2 — August 2015

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