The relativistic kinetic formalism revisited

The relativistic Boltzmann equation is used to provide microscopical support to the relativistic Meixner–Prigogine scheme of linear irreversible thermodynamics. A suitable form of the chaotic velocities is employed in order to construct expressions for the total energy four-flux and the pressure tensor, a method that is not used in current approaches to the subject. The non-relativistic equations are shown to be satisfied within this formalism, and important cosmological implications of the theory, such as a modification of the expansion rate in Robertson–Walker–Friedman Universes are finally examined.