  We develop statistical mechanics for a nonrelativisitic ideal gas in the
presence of Lorentz violating background fields. The analysis is performed
using the Standard-Model Extension (SME). We derive the corresponding laws of
thermodynamics and find that, to lowest order in Lorentz violation, the scalar
thermodynamic variables are corrected by a rotationally invariant combination
of the Lorentz terms which can be interpreted in terms of a (frame dependent)
effective mass. We find that spin couplings can induce a temperature
independent polarization in the gas that is not present in the conventional
case.
