  A spinning gas, heated adiabatically through axial compression, is known to
exhibit a rotation-dependent heat capacity. However, as equilibrium is
approached, a new effect is identified here wherein the temperature does not
grow homogeneously in the radial direction, but develops a temperature
differential with the hottest region on axis, at the maximum of the centrifugal
potential energy. This phenomenon, which we call a piezo-thermal effect, is
shown to grow bilinearly with the compression rate and the amplitude of the
potential. Numerical simulations confirm a simple model of this effect, which
can be generalized to other forms of potential energy and methods of heating.
