Remarks about the thermostatistical description of the HMF model Part I: Equilibrium Thermodynamics

In this series of papers we shall carry out a reconsideration of the thermodynamical behavior of the called HMF model, a paradigmatic ferromagnetic toy model exhibiting many features of the real long-range interacting systems. This first work is devoted to perform the microcanonical description of this model system: the calculation of microcanonical entropy and some fundamental thermodynamic observables, the distribution and correlation functions, as well as the analysis of the thermodynamical stability and the relevant thermodynamic limit.