Thermodynamics can be developed from a microscopic starting point in terms of entropy and the maximum entropy principle. We investigate here to what extent one can replace entropy with relative entropy which has several advantages, for example, in the context of local quantum field theory. We find that the principle of maximum entropy can be replaced by a principle of minimum expected relative entropy. Various ensembles and their thermodynamic potentials can be defined through relative entropy. We also show that thermal fluctuations are in fact governed by a relative entropy. Furthermore, we reformulate the third law of thermodynamics using relative entropy only.

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相对熵的热力学

可以从熵和最大熵原理的微观出发点发展热力学。我们在这里研究在何种程度上可以用相对熵代替熵，相对熵具有相对优势，例如在局部量子场论的背景下。我们发现最大熵的原理可以被最小预期相对熵的原理代替。可以通过相对熵来定义各种合奏及其热力学潜能。我们还表明，热波动实际上是由相对熵决定的。此外，我们仅使用相对熵来重新制定热力学第三定律。