Covariant structure of relativistic gases in equilibrium

Abstract

The dynamical formulation of many-particle relativistic systems using the constraint formalism is applied to the description of equilibrium statistical mechanics in such a way as to include the known properties of covariant thermodynamics. In order to investigate explicitly the thermodynamical functions from this formulation, we explain the development of a unique general prescription for the Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure of the relativistic gases, for which we look into some special cases of classical and quantum systems. In particular, by using this formulation we are able to calculate in detail a relativistic thermodynamical model for a dilute gas of two-particle systems bound together by Lorentz-invariant pair interactions.