Thermodynamics of extended bodies in special relativity

Relativistic thermodynamics is generalized to accommodate four-dimensional rotation in a flat spacetime. An extended body can be in equilibrium when each of its elements moves along a Killing flow. There are three types of basic Killing flows in a flat spacetime, each of which corresponds to translational motion, spatial rotation, and constant linear acceleration; spatial rotation and constant linear acceleration are regarded as four-dimensional rotation. Translational motion has been mainly investigated in the past literature of relativistic thermodynamics. Thermodynamics of the other two is derived in the present paper. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2010