Dissipative hydrodynamics for viscous relativistic fluids

Abstract

Explicit equations are given for describing the space-time evolution of nonideal (viscous) relativistic fluids undergoing boost-invariant longitudinal and arbitrary transverse expansion. The equations are derived from the second-order Israel-Stewart approach which ensures causal evolution. Both azimuthally symmetric (1+1)-dimensional and nonsymmetric (2+1)-dimensional transverse expansion are discussed. The latter provides the formal basis for the hydrodynamic computation of elliptic flow in relativistic heavy ion collisions including dissipative effects.