It is shown that the Legendre-transform structure of thermodynamics can be replicated without any change if one replaces the entropy S by Fisher’s information measure I. Also, the important thermodynamic property of concavity is shown to be obeyed by I. By this use of the Fisher information measure we develop a thermodynamics that seems to be able to treat equilibrium and nonequilibrium situations in a manner entirely similar to the conventional one.

• Received 17 November 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.60.48