General relativistic statistical mechanics

Carlo Rovelli
Phys. Rev. D 87, 084055 – Published 22 April 2013

Abstract

Understanding thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in the fully general relativistic context is an open problem. I give tentative definitions of equilibrium state, mean values, mean geometry, entropy and temperature, which reduce to the conventional ones in the nonrelativistic limit but remain valid for a general covariant theory. The formalism extends to quantum theory. The construction builds on the idea of thermal time, on a notion of locality for this time, and on the distinction between global and local temperature. The last is the temperature measured by a local thermometer and is given by kT=dτ/ds, with k the Boltzmann constant, the Planck constant, ds proper time and dτ the equilibrium thermal time.

  • Received 21 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.084055

© 2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Carlo Rovelli

  • Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy, Aix-Marseille University, F-13288 Marseille, France, EU

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2013

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