Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture - University of Zagreb
Zagreb, Croatia
INDECS 11(1), 161-173, 2013
DOI 10.7906/indecs.11.1.14
Full text available here.
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Received: 11 July 2012
Accepted: 18 January 2013
Regular article |
ABSTRACT
The absolute temperature T has a recognized physical meaning in equilibrium
thermodynamics. The scale realized by the closely related Lagrange coefficient β usually figures as an auxiliary scale. In this
article, the scale spanned by β is a proper intensive thermal quantity for equilibrium and, suitably generalized, for stationary
non-equilibrium state description. The coefficient β measures a relative deviation of a system state from the state of uniform
distribution function. The cause of deviation is coupling to environment, which is realized as a net energy transfer and which
ceases in the β = 0 state. A canonical ensemble of two level atoms coupled to electromagnetic quasi-continuum is considered as an
example. The proposed and the usual interpretations of β are applied to stationary states of the same system, in which case the
notion of the generalized absolute temperature is introduced. The generalized absolute temperature is a measure of a deviation of a
system state from a state of infinitely intense external influence.
KEY WORDS
non-equilibrium thermodynamics, equilibrium, Lagrange coefficient
CLASSIFICATION