Der Drehimpulssatz in der Thermodynamik der irreversiblen Prozesse

Abstract

The conservation law of the angular momentum has not been given sufficient attention in thermodynamics of irreversible processes. It plays an important part, however, when irreversible processes in the presence of electromagnetic fields are examined and the intrinsic angular momentum, due to spins of electrons and nuclei and electron orbits in atoms and molecules, is taken account of. Then the thermodynamic properties of matter with the macroscopic intrinsic angular momentum as an additional extensive parameter can be developed. Thermodynamics of irreversible processes is completed by the fact that a characteristic irreversible process is now associated also with the conservation law of angular momentum and Bloch's equation of nuclear induction is thus obtained in a straightforward way as one of the phenomenological equations.