How Flexible Is the Concept of Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium? It has been demonstrated by using generalized phenomenological irreversible thermodynamic theory (GPITT) that by replacing the conventional composition variables {xk} by the quantum level composition variables {x˜k,j} corresponding to the nonequilibrium population of the quantum states, the resultant description remains well within the local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) domain.  This exercise results in a framework that resembles with the thermodynamics with internal variables (TIV), which too is obtained as a framework within the LTE domain.  This TIV-type framework is easily transformed to an extended irreversible thermodynamics (EIT) type framework, which uses physical fluxes as additional variables.  Thus, GPITT becomes a complete version of classical irreversible thermodynamics (CIT). 
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