Relativistic heat flux for a single component charged fluid in the presence of an electromagnetic field

TL;DR

This paper derives a relativistic heat flux equation for a charged fluid influenced by electric and magnetic fields, revealing how electromagnetic forces contribute to thermal dissipation in plasma-like systems.

Contribution

It generalizes previous models by including magnetic fields in the relativistic heat flux analysis for single-component charged fluids.

Findings

Electric and magnetic fields both influence heat flux in relativistic charged fluids.

The derived constitutive equation explicitly shows electromagnetic contributions to thermal dissipation.

Potential implications for plasma dynamics and related astrophysical phenomena.

Abstract

Transport properties in gases are significantly affected by temperature. In previous works it has been shown that when the thermal agitation in a gas is high enough, such that relativistic effects become relevant, heat dissipation is driven not solely by a temperature gradient but also by other vector forces. In the case of relativistic charged fluids, a heat flux is driven by an electrostatic field even in the single species case. The present work generalizes such result by considering also a magnetic field in an arbitrary inertial reference frame. The corresponding constitutive equation is explicitly obtained showing that both electric and magnetic forces contribute to thermal dissipation. This result may lead to relevant effects in plasma dynamics.