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Phys. Rev. C 78, 034913 (2008) [7 pages]

Stress tensor and bulk viscosity in relativistic nuclear collisions

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Rainer J. Fries1,2,3, Berndt Müller3,4, and Andreas Schäfer3,5
1Cyclotron Institute and Department of Physics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
2RIKEN/BNL Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
3Yukawa Institute of Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
4Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
5Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany

Received 30 July 2008; published 26 September 2008

We discuss the influence of different initial conditions for the stress tensor and the effect of bulk viscosity on the expansion and cooling of the fireball created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. In particular, we explore the evolution of longitudinal and transverse components of the pressure and the extent of dissipative entropy production in the one-dimensional, boost-invariant hydrodynamic model. We find that a bulk viscosity consistent with recent estimates from lattice QCD further slows the equilibration of the system; however, it does not significantly increase the entropy produced.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.78.034913
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevC.78.034913
PACS:
25.75.Ag, 25.75.Ld, 47.75.+f
 
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