Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We investigate nonlinear instabilities stemming from superluminal propagation of information in Israel-Stewart-like models of relativistic viscous fluid dynamics. In relativity, the characteristic speed of propagation of information, $w$, and the speed of the fluid, $v$, allow us to differentiate between regimes of the hydrodynamic equations that are acausal but stable ($w>1$), unstable (${v}^{2}{w}^{2}\ensuremath{\ge}1$), and covariantly ill posed (${w}^{2}\ensuremath{\le}0$). As an analytical benchmark, we present a new solution that illustrates these distinct regimes. We compare this analytical solution to the result of a numerical relativistic viscous fluid dynamics solver and confirm that the analytical result can be recovered numerically in the stable regime, whether causal or acausal. The onset of numerical instabilities is further found to occur in the regime predicted by the analytical solution.
DOI: 10.1103/np53-f6cl
Institutions: Vanderbilt University, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4415196708