The universality of the Carnot theorem

Abstract: It is common in many thermodynamic textbooks to illustrate the Carnot theorem through the usage of diverse state equations for gases, paramagnets, and other simple thermodynamic systems. As it is well-known, the universality of the Carnot efficiency is easily demonstrated in a temperature-entropy diagram, which means that the Carnot efficiecy is independent of the working substance. In this present work we remark that the universality of the Carnot theorem goes beyond the conventional state equations, and it is fulfilled by gas state equations that do not behave as ideal gas in the dilution limit when the volume is infinite. Some of these unconventional state equations have certain thermodynamic "anomalies" that nonetheless do not forbid them from obeying the Carnot theorem. We discuss how this very general behaviour arises from the Maxwell relations, which are connected with a geometrical property expressed through preserving area transformations. A rule is proposed to calculate the Maxwell relations associated with a thermodynamic system by using the preserving area relationships. In this way it is possible to calculate the number of possible preserving area mappings by giving the number of possible Jacobian identities between all pairs of thermodynamic variables included in the corresponding Gibbs equation. This work is intended for undergraduate and specialists in thermodynamics and related areas.