Onsager-Casimir reciprocal relations

Abstract

The Onsager reciprocal relations are established within the phenomenological framework of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. In order to do so, the dissipated power densities associated to scalar and vectorial processes are written as positive semi-definite quadratic forms of the corresponding generalised forces, as required by the local expression of the second law in the neighbourhood of the equilibrium. The antisymmetric part of the scalar and vectorial Onsager matrices do not contribute to the dissipation, which yields the scalar and vectorial Onsager reciprocal relations. Furthermore, the positive semi-definite quadratic forms of the generalised scalar and vectorial forces are invariant under time reversal, which yields the scalar and vectorial Casimir-Onsager reciprocal relations, that are a generalisation of the Onsager reciprocal relations.