English

On relativistic thermodynamics

Statistical Mechanics 2025-08-06 v2 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

'Relativistic thermodynamics' should be understood not as a generalization of a non-relativistic theory but as an application of a general thermodynamic framework, neutral as to spacetime setting and allowing arbitrary conserved quantities, to the specific case of relativity. That framework gives an unambiguous result as to the thermodynamics of relativistically moving systems (an answer coinciding with Einstein's, and Planck's, original results.) Thermodynamic temperature is unambiguously defined as rate of change of energy with entropy at constant momentum; that said, its operational significance is limited and other measures of energy/entropy covariance, which incorporate momentum transfer, are often more useful.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.00354,
  title  = {On relativistic thermodynamics},
  author = {David Wallace},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.00354},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

22 pages; very substantially revised from previous version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:19:44.666Z