Fluctuations of Intensive Quantities in Statistical Thermodynamics

Abstract

In phenomenological thermodynamics, the canonical coordinates of a physical system split in pairs, with each pair consisting of an extensive quantity and an intensive one. In the present paper, the quasithermodynamic fluctuation theory of a model system of a large number of oscillators is extended to statistical thermodynamics based on the idea of perceiving the fluctuations of intensive variables as the fluctuations of specific extensive ones in a “thermodynamically dual” system. The extension is motivated by the symmetry of the problem in the context of an analogy with quantum mechanics, which is stated in terms of a generalized Pauli problem for the thermodynamic fluctuations. The doubled Boltzmann constant divided by the number of particles plays a similar role as the Planck constant.

Keywords

• fluctuations
• thermodynamics
• quantization
• Pauli problem
• duality