Nonequilibrium Thermodynamical Inequivalence of Quantum Stress-energy and Spin Tensors

Abstract: It is shown that different pairs of stress-energy and spin tensors of quantum relativistic fields related by a pseudo-gauge transformation, i.e. differing by a divergence, imply different mean values of physical quantities in thermodynamical nonequilibrium situations. Most notably, transport coefficients and the total entropy production rate are affected by the choice of the spin tensor of the relativistic quantum field theory under consideration. Therefore, at least in principle, it should be possible to disprove a fundamental stress-energy tensor and/or to show that a fundamental spin tensor exists by means of a dissipative thermodynamical experiment.