  We show that the covariant Raychaudhuri identity describing kinematic
characteristics of space-time admits a representation involving a geometrical
scalar $\xi$ which, depending on circumstances, might be related to, e.g.,
relativistic temperature or cosmological scalar field. With an appropriately
chosen spacetime deformation tensor (fixing the symmetry of a problem under
consideration), such scalarization opens a wide scope for physical
applications. We consider few such applications including dynamics of
cosmological (anti)scalar background, non-variational deduction of the field
equations, scalar and black-hole thermodynamics and the reshaping of the
Einstein equations into the Klein-Gordon equation in thermodynamic Killing
space.
