section_path: Axiomatic thermodynamics
section_name: Axiomatic thermodynamics
paragraph_text: Axiomatic thermodynamics
  
  Axiomatic thermodynamics is a mathematical discipline that aims to describe thermodynamics in terms of rigorous axioms, for example by finding a mathematically rigorous way to express the familiar laws of thermodynamics.
  
  The first attempt at an axiomatic theory of thermodynamics was Constantin Carathéodory 's 1909 work Investigations on the Foundations of Thermodynamics, which made use of Pfaffian systems and the concept of adiabatic accessibility, a notion that was introduced by Carathéodory himself. In this formulation, thermodynamic concepts such as heat, entropy, and temperature are derived from quantities that are more directly measurable. Theories that came after, differed in the sense that they made assumptions regarding thermodynamic processes with arbitrary initial and final states, as opposed to considering only neighboring states.