Thermostat for a relativistic gas

Abstract: Molecular dynamics simulations of a three dimensional relativistic gas with a soft potential are conducted with different interactions and particle masses. For all cases the velocity distribution agrees numerically with the J\"uttner distribution. We show how the relativistic gas can be coupled to a thermostat to simulate the canonical ensemble at a given temperature T. The behaviour of the thermostat is investigated as a function of the thermal inertia and its appropriate range is determined by evaluating the kinetic energy fluctuations.