We study the thermodynamic behavior of a decaying scalar field coupled to a relativistic simple fluid. It is shown that if the decay products are represented by a thermalized bath, its temperature evolution law requires naturally a new phenomenological coupling term. This “energy loss” term is the product between the enthalpy density of the thermalized bath and the decay width of the scalar fie...

Recent years have seen a tremendous progress in the microscopic theoretical treatment of surfaces and processes on surfaces. While some decades ago a phenomenological thermodynamic approach was dominant, a variety of surface properties can now be described from first principles, i.e. without invoking any empirical parameters. Consequently, the field of theoretical surface science is no longer l...