Nonequilibrium thermodynamical inequivalence of quantum stress-energy and spin tensors

Nonequilibrium thermodynamical inequivalence of quantum stress-energy and spin tensors

It is shown that different pairs of stress-energy and spin tensors of quantum relativistic fields related by a pseudo-gauge transformation, i.e., differing by a divergence, imply different mean values of physical quantities in thermodynamical nonequilibrium situations. Most notably, transport coeffi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. D, Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology Vol. 87; no. 2
Main Authors: Becattini, F., Tinti, L.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 25-01-2013
Subjects:
Cosmology
Dissipation
Entropy
Gravitation
Mathematical analysis
Quantum theory
Tensors
Transformations
Transport
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:It is shown that different pairs of stress-energy and spin tensors of quantum relativistic fields related by a pseudo-gauge transformation, i.e., differing by a divergence, imply different mean values of physical quantities in thermodynamical nonequilibrium situations. Most notably, transport coefficients and the total entropy production rate are affected by the choice of the spin tensor of the relativistic quantum field theory under consideration. Therefore, at least in principle, it should be possible to disprove a fundamental stress-energy tensor and/or to show that a fundamental spin tensor exists by means of a dissipative thermodynamical experiment.
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content type line 23
ISSN:1550-7998
1550-2368
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.87.025029