Abstract
The meaning of temperature in nonequilibrium thermodynamics is considered by using a forced harmonic oscillator in a heat bath, where we have two effective temperatures for the position and the momentum, respectively. We propose a concrete model of a thermometer to testify the validity of these different temperatures from the operational point of view. It is found that the measured temperature depends on a specific form of interaction between the system and a thermometer, which means that the zeroth law of thermodynamics cannot be immediately extended to nonequilibrium cases.
- Received 17 July 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.026121
©2003 American Physical Society
