Thermodynamics: A Modern Approach

Hal Tasaki received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1986. After spending two years as a postdoc with Professor Elliott Lieb at Princeton University, he settled at Gakushuin University, where he has been a professor since 1999. He received the Kubo Memorial Prize in 1997 and the Nishina Memorial Prize in 2025 for his contributions to the mathematical-physical studies of quantum many-body systems. He has been an Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Statistical Physics (JSP) since 2018, an editor of two series on mathematical physics from Springer, and an executive committee member of the International Association of Mathematical Physics (IAMP) since 2024.Glenn Paquette received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. He went on to hold faculty and research positions at Kyoto University in the Department of Physics and the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is presently a freelance physicist.

Extremely well written and with beautiful illustrations and at a high pedagogical level. A difficult book to put down.

• 1: What Is Thermodynamics? 2: Thermodynamic Systems, Operations and Equilibrium States 3: Isothermal Operations and the Helmholtz Free Energy 4: Adiabatic Operations and Energy 5: Heat and Carnot's Theorem 6: Entropy 7: Helmholtz Free Energy and Variational Principles 8: Gibbs Free Energy 9: The Thermodynamics of Multi-Component Systems 10: The Thermodynamics of Ferromagnetic Materials Appendix A: Supplement to Chapter 2 Appendix B: Uniqueness of the Entropy Appendix C: Upper Limit on the Efficiency of a Heat Engine Appendix D: The Thermodynamics of the Triple Point Appendix E: On the Treatment of Mechanical Potential Energy Appendix F: Summary of Complete Thermodynamic Functions Appendix G: Convex Functions Appendix H: Legendre Transformation