Geometrothermodynamics

We present the fundamentals of geometrothermodynamics, an approach to study the properties of thermodynamic systems in terms of differential geometric concepts. It is based, on the one hand, on the well-known contact structure of the thermodynamic phase space and, on the other hand, on the metric structure of the space of thermodynamic equilibrium states. In order to make these two structures compatible we introduce a Legendre invariant set of metrics in the phase space and demand that their pullback generates metrics on the space of equilibrium states. We show that Weinhold's metric, which was introduced ad hoc, is not contained within this invariant set. We propose alternative metrics which allow us to redefine the concept of thermodynamic length in an invariant manner and to study phase transitions in terms of curvature singularities. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.