The kinetic foundation of extended irreversible thermodynamics revisited

Extended irreversible thermodynamics (EIT) has been used mainly to study the short-time behavior of fluids and some other systems. It has also been shown how the structure of the equations of motion constructed for the so-called relaxation variables coincides with those obtained by means of Grad's method in kinetic theory. In this work we calculate the generalized entropy from the one-particle distribution function up to 26 moments. We find that the characteristics of such entropy and the equations of motion for the relaxing variables are supported by the kinetic theory. This is not the case for the hierarchical relaxation hypothesis which is used in the applications of EIT to the generalized hydrodynamic regime.On temporary leave at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.