Temperature upper bound of an ideal gas

Abstract

We study thermodynamics of a heat-conducting ideal gas system. The study is based on i) the first law of thermodynamics from action formulation which expects heat-dependence of energy density and ii) the existence condition of a (local) Lorentz boost between an Eckart observer and a Landau-Lifschitz observer–a condition that extends the stability criterion of thermal equilibrium. The implications of these conditions include: i) Heat contributes to the energy density through the combination q/nΘ2 where q, n, and Θ represent heat, the number density, and the temperature, respectively. ii) The energy density has a unique minimum at q=0. iii) The temperature upper bound suppresses the heat dependence of the energy density inverse quadratically. This result explains why the expected heat dependence is difficult to observe in ordinary situation thermodynamics.