Entropy Production and Equilibrium Conditions of General-Covariant Spin Systems

Abstract

In generalizing the special-relativistic one-component version of Eckart's continuum thermodynamics to general-relativistic space-times with Riemannian or post-Riemannian geometry, we consider the entropy production and other themodynamical quantities such as the entropy flux and the Gibbs fundamental equation. We discuss equilibrium conditions in gravitational theories which are based on such geometries. In particular, thermodynamic implications of the non-symmetry of the energy-momentum tensor and the related spin balance equations are investigated, also for the special case of General Relativity.