Existence of the internal energy and entropy for relativistic continuous systems (Q793531)

The concept of accumulation function, representing the total heat absorbed by a system during a process at a given hotness level was introduced and used in order to formulate the laws of thermodynamics by Serrin [\textit{J. Serrin,} (*) Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 70, 355-371 (1979)]. The author's give a possible extension of Serrin's ideas to the relativistic case. Because in a relativistic theory it is possible to distinguish in a clear way between work and heat only in the rest frame of a particle, the extension is based on local quantities, which permits a reformulation of the laws of thermodynamics given by Serrin (*) using global quantities. The results obtained in the paper depend on the choice for specific proper work; of course many other choices are possible and the connexion existing between various relativistic extensions of classical thermodynamics is not clear. The authors use their extension in order to obtain restrictions on constitutive equations for rate-type relativistic materials; other extensions of course will yield other restrictions.