Abstract
This paper summarizes recent developments in relativistic statistical mechanics obtained by Israel and Kandrup, with emphasis upon applications to the theory of relativistic stellar dynamics. The formal structure of Newtonian kinetic theory is recalled, and it is indicated how that heuristic theory may be understood as a well-defined limit of a more complete, many-body phase-space description. The structure of the corresponding relativistic theory is then presented, culminating in an approximate Fokker-Planck equation appropriate for a self-gravitating system of ‘point mass’ stars. The problems related to understanding such a theory as the limiting case of a ‘complete’ many-body relativistic theory are discussed, and the principal results obtained to date are enumerated.
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