On the Contact Geometry and the Poisson Geometry of the Ideal Gas

Abstract

We elaborate on existing notions of contact geometry and Poisson geometry as applied to the classical ideal gas. Specifically, we observe that it is possible to describe its dynamics using a 3-dimensional contact submanifold of the standard 5-dimensional contact manifold used in the literature. This reflects the fact that the internal energy of the ideal gas depends exclusively on its temperature. We also present a Poisson algebra of thermodynamic operators for a quantum-like description of the classical ideal gas. The central element of this Poisson algebra is proportional to Boltzmann’s constant. A Hilbert space of states is identified and a system of wave equations governing the wavefunction is found. Expectation values for the operators representing pressure, volume and temperature are found to satisfy the classical equations of state.

Keywords

• ideal gas
• poisson geometry