Narit Pidokrajt

May 29, 2007

4. Weinhold metric of the ideal gas at constant volume

The Weinhold metric of the ideal gas at constant volume (V ) is given by

dT 2 dN 2
ds2W = N +T (1)
T N
where N, T mean number of particles and temperature of the ideal gas respectively.
We have assumption that N, T ∈ R+ . We know from curvature calculations that
this metric is a flat metric. So we wish to bring the metric in (1) into a manifestly
flat form. By mathematical wisdom we rewrite (1) as
µ 2
dN 2
¶
2 dT
ds = N T + 2 (2)
T2 N
Let
x = ln T and y = ln N (3)

with N, T ∈ R+ and hence x, y ∈ R. Inversely T and N can be written as

T = ex and N = ey (4)

respectively. Thus we can write metric (2) as

ds2 = ex+y (dx2 + dy 2 ) (5)

However this metric is not in a manifestly flat form. We further introduce

1
u = √ (x + y) (6)
2
and
1
v = √ (x − y) (7)
2
with u, v ∈ R. These variables translate into
1 1
x = √ (u + v) and y = √ (u − v) (8)
2 2
So we obtain
√
ds2 = e 2u
(du2 + dv 2 ) (9)

Next we introduce
√ u/√2 v
α= 2e and β=√ (10)
2
with α > 0 but β ∈ R therefore we obtain

ds2 = dα2 + α2 dβ 2 (11)

which is a regonizably flat metric. So the state space of the Weinhold metric of the
ideal gas at constant volume is an infinite covering of the plane, a.k.a. barber pole
spiral ¥