IWNET12
IWNET12
Thermodynamics of continuous media with permanent electric polari-
sation and permanent magnetisation
Sylvain D. Brechet1, Jean-Philippe Ansermet1
1 Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, EPFL, Switzerland
Abstract
In order to understand the interplay between charge, spin and heat current, we decided to establish the ther-
modynamics of continuous media with permanent polarisation and permanent magnetisation in the presence of
electromagnetic fields.
At local thermal equilibrium between the matter and the electromagnetic fields, we derived explicit expressions
for the temperature and chemical potentials in terms of the electromagnetic fields, the permanent electric
polarisation and the permanent magnetisation, i.e.
[... see book of abstracts ...] Our thermodynamical approach leads to more general coupling terms in the linear phenomenological relations
than those obtained earlier for the thermodynamics of continuous media with electromagnetic fields by de Groot
and Mazur (S. R. de Groot and P. Mazur, Non-equilibrium thermodynamics Dover: New York, (1984)). As
an example, our general formalism describes properties of electrorheological fluids: a non-uniform electric field
generates a dissipative shear stress, i.e. [...] Similarly, it describes properties of magnetorheological fluids: a non-uniform magnetic field generates a dissi-
pative angular stress.
E-mail: sylvain.brechet@epfl.ch

---