On the stability of the equilibrium states for Hamiltonian dynamical systems arising in non–equilibrium thermodynamics

In this paper we consider a thermodynamic system with an internal state variable, and study the stability of its equilibrium states by exploiting the reduced entropy inequality. Remarkably, we derive a Hamiltonian dynamical system ruling the evolution of the system in a suitable thermodynamic phase space. The use of the Hamiltonian formalism allows us to prove the equivalence of the asymptotic stability at constant temperature, at constant entropy and at constant energy, thus extending some classical results by Coleman and Gurtin (J. Chem. Phys., 47, 597–613, 1967).