Local thermodynamic equilibrium at three levels (Q2447103)

The object of the paper is to formulate the concept of local thermodynamic equilibrium that coordinates three levels: macroscopic level of classical nonequilibrium thermodynamics, mesoscopic level of hydrodynamical fluctuations, and microscopic level of quantum statistical mechanics. It is shown that the microscopic component leads to a local version of the zeroth law. The description is based on the generic model of a nonrelativistic multi-particle quantum system. All conditions are expressed in terms of hydrodynamical variables. The results depend on scale invariance of the dynamics.