Relativistic transformation of thermodynamic parameters and refined Saha equation

Abstract

Abstract The relativistic transformation rule for temperature is a debated topic for more than 110 years. Several incompatible proposals exist in the literature but a final resolution is still missing. In this work, we reconsider the problem of relativistic transformation rules for a number of thermodynamic parameters including temperature, chemical potential, pressure, entropy and enthalpy densities for a relativistic perfect fluid using relativistic kinetic theory. The analysis is carried out in a fully relativistic covariant manner, and the explicit transformation rules for the above quantities are obtained in both Minkowski and Rindler spacetimes. Our results suggest that the temperature of a moving fluid appears to be colder, supporting the proposal by de Broglie, Einstein, and Planck, in contrast to other proposals. Moreover, in the case of a Rindler fluid, our findings suggest that the total number of particles and the total entropy of a perfect fluid in a box whose bottom is parallel to the Rindler horizon are proportional to the area of the bottom, but are independent of the height of the box, provided the bottom of the box is sufficiently close to the Rindler horizon. The area dependence of the particle number implies that the particles tend to be gathered toward the bottom of the box, and hence implicitly determines the distribution of the chemical potential of the system, whereas the area dependence of the entropy indicates that the entropy is still additive and may have potential applications in explaining the area law of black hole entropy. As a by-product, we also obtain a relativistically refined version of the famous Saha equation which holds in both Minkowski and Rindler spacetimes.