2002/07/31 by J. A. S. Lima, Jose A. S. Lima, Alejandra Kandus +2 · 1 citation
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Gas Dynamics and Kinetic Theory #astro-ph #hep-ph #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.67.023002
published as Phys.Rev.D67:023002,2003 · 11 pages, no figures, title changed, improved introduction and discussion. New author added
arxiv created 2002/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2003/01/21 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider an imperfect relativistic fluid in which a shock wave develops and we discuss its structure and thickness, taking into account the effects of viscosity and heat conduction in the form of sound absorption. The junction conditions and the nonlinear equations describing the evolution of the shock are derived with the corresponding Newtonian limit discussed in detail. As in the nonrelativistic regime, the thickness is inversely proportional to the discontinuity in the pressure. However, new terms of purely relativistic origin are also present. In particular, for a viscous polytropic gas, it is found that a purely viscous relativistic shock is thicker than its nonrelativistic counterpart, while for pure heat conduction the contrary is true.