Partial Integrability as the Basis for the Existence of Entropy in Irreversible Systems

Abstract

AbstractThe concept of internal forces of the first and second kind is introduced and discussed. The physical basis for thermodynamic inaccessibility is established. The existence of entropy for irreversible systems is then proved on the basis of the concept of ‚partial integrability’︁ of Pfaffian forms. Evolution equations for the internal variables are thereby proposed and discussed.