Is there a temperature?: conceptual challenges at high energy, acceleration and complexity

Physical bodies can be hot or cold, moving or standing,simple or complex. In all such cases one assumes that their respective temperature is a well defined attribute. What if, however, the ordinary measurement of temperature by direct body contact is not possible? One conjectures its value, and yes, its very existence, by reasoning based on basic principles of thermodynamics. Is There a Temperature? Conceptual Challenges at High Energy, Acceleration and Complexity, by Dr. Tamás Sándor Bíró, begins by asking the questions “Do we understand and can we explain in a unified framework the temperature of distant radiation sources, including event horizons, and that of the quark matter produced in high energy accelerator experiments? Or the astounding fluctuations on financial markets?” The book reviews the concept of temperature from its beginnings through the evolution of classical thermodynamics and atomic statistical physics through contemporary models of high energy particle matter. Based on the views of high energy nuclear physicists, it crosses over several traditional disciplines of university physics. Recent developments towards an abstract, general and thermodynamically consistent treatment of non-extensive systems are worked in. Exercise problems and solutions help to deepen the reader’s understanding into the details behind the theories.