Reversible dissipative processes, conformal motions and Landau damping

Abstract

The existence of a dissipative flux vector is known to be compatible with reversible processes, provided a timelike conformal Killing vector (CKV) χα=VαT (where Vα and T denote the four-velocity and temperature respectively) is admitted by the spacetime. Here we show that if a constitutive transport equation, either within the context of standard irreversible thermodynamics or the causal Israel–Stewart theory, is adopted, then such a compatibility also requires vanishing dissipative fluxes. Therefore, in this later case the vanishing of entropy production generated by the existence of such CKV is not actually associated to an imperfect fluid, but to a non-dissipative one. We discuss also about Landau damping.