Curie's principle

Curie's principle, or Curie's symmetry principle, is a maxim about cause and effect formulated by Pierre Curie in 1894:^[1]

the symmetries of the causes are to be found in the effects.^[2][3][4]

The idea was based on the ideas of Franz Ernst Neumann and Bernhard Minnigerode. Thus, it is sometimes known as the Neuman–Minnigerode–Curie principle.^[5]

Later physicists have interpreted Curie's principle in the context of thermodynamics. Dynamics close to equilibrium are described by a set of transport coefficients whose symmetries must match the symmetries of the system, according to Curie's principle. ^[6]