On relativistic transformation of temperature

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the long‐lasting controversy on the relativistic transformation of temperature, generally known as the Planck‐Ott imbroglio. Various, mostly unsuccessful, attempts to solve this demanding problem using a combinations of tools of classical thermodynamics, transformation rules of special theory of relativity, theory of black‐body radiation and kinetic theory, are reviewed. Using phenomenological analysis, we demonstrate that the failure of these attempts and the existence of the imbroglio itself are most likely due to the misunderstanding of the physical meaning of temperature and to some serious flaws in foundations of classical thermodynamics. We further show that the temperature of a moving body must remain invariant for observers in all relatively moving frames.

The zeroth law of thermodynamics in special relativity

“…The long-lasting debate on the definition of the temperature of moving bodies, traditionally called Planck-Ott imbroglio (Mareš et al 2017), originates at this point. At first (Planck 1908;Tolman 1933;Ott 1963;Landsberg 1967), the discussion was oriented in the direction of defining a transformation law of the temperature under Lorentz boosts and work in this direction is still ongoing (see Farías et al 2017 for a recent review).…”

The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics in Special Relativity

“…The long-lasting debate on the definition of the temperature of moving bodies, traditionally called Planck-Ott imbroglio [32], originates at this point. At first [28,35,41,44], the discussion was oriented in the direction of defining a transformation law of the temperature under Lorentz boosts and work in this direction is still ongoing (see [12] for a recent review).…”

A note on the relativistic temperature

“…The idea of a relativistic transformation of temperature has been the subject of a long and heated debate, which has been documented in several review papers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] . Different points of view about what is the temperature of a body moving with a constant velocity have been proposed over the years.…”