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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
The Tolman-Ehrenfest criterion of thermal equilibrium in scalar-tensor gravity
Numa Karolinski1, Valerio Faraoni2
1Physics Department, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 Canada.
Abstract:
The Tolman-Ehrenfest criterion for the thermal equilibrium of a fluid at rest in a static general-relativistic geometry is generalized to scalar-tensor gravity. Surprisingly, the gravitational scalar field, which fixes the strength of the effective gravitational coupling, does not play a role in determining thermal equilibrium. As a result, heat does not sink more in a gravitational field where gravity is stronger.
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