General-relativistic kinetic theory of gases

The relativistic kinetic theory of gases, which will be presented in the following lectures, is of interest for a number of reasons: It offers a simple, microscopic model for matter in bulk which is sufficiently general to provide a basis for hydrodynamics and thermodynamics of simple and multi- component systems. Definite conservation laws, balance equations, equations of state, transport and reactions can be derived from it, and if cross from a microscopic scattering theory are fed in, kinetic theory gives transport and reaction coefficients. As in the non-relativistic theory, the arbitrariness of the constitutive equations and the indefiniteness of the transport coefficients inherent in the phenomenological continuum approach are overcome by the kinetic theory.