Internal Energy, Fundamental Thermodynamic Relation, and Gibbs’ Ensemble Theory as Emergent Laws of Statistical Counting

Abstract

Statistical counting ad infinitum is the holographic observable to a statistical dynamics with finite states under independent and identically distributed N sampling. Entropy provides the infinitesimal probability for an observed empirical frequency ν^ with respect to a probability prior p, when ν^≠p as N→∞. Following Callen’s postulate and through Legendre–Fenchel transform, without help from mechanics, we show that an internal energy u emerges; it provides a linear representation of real-valued observables with full or partial information. Gibbs’ fundamental thermodynamic relation and theory of ensembles follow mathematically. u is to ν^ what chemical potential μ is to particle number N in Gibbs’ chemical thermodynamics, what β=T−1 is to internal energy U in classical thermodynamics, and what ω is to t in Fourier analysis.

Keywords

• emergent phenomenon
• entropy
• information
• internal energy
• probability theory
• statistic