Translation of Walter Noll's ``Derivation of the fundamental equations of continuum thermodynamics from statistical mechanics'' (Q5962111)

This article represents a translation of the original paper ``Die Herleitung der Grundgleichungen der Thermomechanik der Kontinua aus der Statistischen Mechanik'', which was written by \textit{W. Noll} and appeared in [J. Ration. Mech. Anal. 4, 627--646 (1955; Zbl 0065.19405)]. In the original paper, Noll addressed and analyzed the seminal paper of Irving and Kirkwood, published five years earlier, on ``The statistical mechanical theory of transport processes. IV. The equations of hydrodynamics''. Noll gave new interpretations and provided a firm setting for ideas advanced by Irving and Kirkwood that were clearly and directly related to the basic principles of continuum mechanics. So, Noll gave closed-form integral expressions for the stress tensor and heat flux, and he provided a detailed interpretation of these quantities. Irving and Kirkwood presented stress tensor and heat flux by infinite series and only attempted to give an interpretation. Besides, Noll did not assume that all particles are identical, and the external forces he considered need not arise from a potential, and may also depend on particle velocities. Thus, the present translation aims to expose the important contribution of Noll to a wider community of researchers at a time when the atomistic modeling of material behavior was being advanced. Noll's use of elementary mathematics to discover physical effects, to explain physical concepts, and to draw conclusions of a physical nature is exhibited. Noll's paper emerged from a report that he presented in a seminar at Indiana University in the summer of 1954. The seminar was organized by Clifford Truesdell, whose inspiration Noll gratefully acknowledged.