THE PHYSICAL SPACETIME AS A CHRONOSTAT DEFINING TIME - (PROLEGOMENA TO A FUTURE CHRONODYNAMICS)

The familiar analogy, appearing in the quantum theory, between the tim e evolution of an isolated system and the thermal equilibrium of a sys tem with a thermostat, is taken at its face value. This leads us to th e phenomenological conjecture that, in reality, the so called isolated system may remain in a ''temporal equilibrium'' with the physical spa ce-time which plays then the role of a ''chronostat'' defining time eq ual at all space points (in a Minkowski frame of reference). Such a co njecture suggests virtual deviations from this equilibrium and so seem s to imply an extension of the first law of thermodynamics as well as of the state equation in the quantum theory.