Nonequilibrium Temperature: An Approach from Irreversibility

Abstract

Nonequilibrium temperature is a topic of research with continuously growing interest because of recent improvements in and applications of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, with particular regard to information theory, kinetic theory, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics, superfluids, radiative systems, etc. All studies on nonequilibrium temperature have pointed out that the definition of nonequilibrium temperature must be related to different aspects of the system, to the energy of the system, and to the energy fluxes between the system and its environment. In this paper, we introduce a definition of nonequilibrium temperature based on the Gouy–Stodola and Carnot theorems in order to satisfy all these theoretical requirements. The result obtained links nonequilibrium temperature to the electromagnetic outflow, generated by irreversibility during microscopic interaction in the system; to the environmental temperature; to the mean energy; and to the geometrical and physical characteristics of the system.