On relativistic thermodynamics

✍ Scribed by David Eimerl

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 962 KB
• Volume: 91
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-4916
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-4916(75)90232-8

✦ Synopsis

The thermodynamics of moving bodies is developed from first principles. To do this, it is necessary to augment the laws of thermodynamics with a new principle, which asserts the impossibility of thermal equilibrium between bodies in relative motion. Clausius' theorem is generalized to heat flow between moving systems, and leads naturally to the identification of heat and temperature as Lorentz scalars. The formulation of relativistic statistical mechanics is carried out and the correspondence with classical quantities is made. The quantum distribution laws are generalized to the relativistic case, and are found to differ from their accepted relativistic form.