Gravito-thermal transports, Onsager reciprocal relation and gravitational Wiedemann-Franz law

Abstract

Using the near-detailed-balance distribution function obtained in our recent work, we present a set of covariant gravito-thermal transport equations (i.e. the flow of various charges as linear response to thermodynamical forces) for neutral relativistic gases in a generic stationary spacetime. All relevant tensorial transport coefficients are worked out and are presented using some particular integration functions in (α,ζ), where α=−βμ and ζ=βm is the relativistic coldness, with β being the inverse temperature and μ being the chemical potential. It is shown that the Onsager reciprocal relation holds in the gravito-thermal transport phenomena, and that the heat conductivity and the gravito-conductivity tensors are proportional to each other, with the coefficient of proportionality given by the product of the so-called Lorenz number with the temperature, thus proving a gravitational variant of the Wiedemann-Franz law. It is remarkable that, for strongly degenerate Fermi gases, the Lorenz number takes a universal constant value L=π2/3, which extends the Wiedemann-Franz law into the Wiedemann-Franz-Lorenz law.