Volume 5: Pages 3-9, 1992
The Second Law and its Impact on Relativistic Thermodynamics
J. J. Bevelacqua 1
1GPU Nuclear Corporation, P.O. Box 480, Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A.
Temperature relationships and their impact upon the second law of thermodynamics are determined by examining the relativistic transformation of thermodynamic quantities. Kinematic and four‐vector relationships lead to expressions more complex than the popular Einstein (b = −1), Landsberg (b = 0), and Ott (b = +1) thermodynamic temperature relationships, which relate temperature according to the power law T = YbT0. These relationships are artifacts of assumptions regarding thermodynamic properties. For example, the Ott, Einstein, and Landsberg relationships result from the second law being invariant, thermodynamics being form invariant, and temperature invariance, respectively. However, a unique temperature relationship cannot be determined from standard thermodynamic considerations. Additional insight may be gained by interpreting temperature as the fourth component of a four‐vector. The four‐vector approach suggests a moving body may exhibit any of the aforementioned temperature relationships depending upon the nature of the four‐vector and relative velocity of the moving reference frames.
Keywords: special relativity, second law of thermodynamics, relativistic thermodynamics, temperature relationships
Received: May 31, 1989; Published Online: December 15, 2008
