Volume 58A, number 4

PHYSICS LETTERS

6 September 1976

THERMODYNAMICS OF NONSTATIONARY
AND TRANSIENT EFFECTS IN A RELATIVISTIC GAS*
W. ISRAEL* and J.M. STEWART
D.A.M.T.P., Silver Street, Cambridge, England
Received 16 July 1976
We show how a system of generalized Fourier and Navier-Stokes equations, containingrelaxation terms and couplings between heat flow and viscosity, can be consistently derived from phenomenological thermodynamics and
from kinetic theory. The coefficients are given explicitly for a relativistic Boltzmann gas.

The standard formulation of transport laws in phenomenological thermodynamics (both classical and relativistic)
leads to parabolic equations and infinite propagation speeds. Since one believes that heat and momentum are carried by molecules, one would have expected propagation at about the mean molecular speed, and certainly no
faster than the speed of light. We re-examine this notorious paradox and show that conventional theory leads to
the paradox via an invalid approximation. The details will be presented elsewhere.
Historically, this problem has always been examined first in the kinetic theory limit and only subsequently
within phenomenological thermodynamics. Grad [1] studied the characteristics of his 5- and 9-moment (nonrelativistic) approximations. Stewart [2] first computed the 5-moment approximation in relativistic kinetic theory.
This was subsequently generalized to the 13-moment theory by Krany~[3] and the 14-moment theory by
Stewart [4]. Phenomenological generalizations have been given by Miller [5] and Israel [6] , and the two approaches are unified in [7]. An inequivalent thermodynamical formulation has been given by Carter [8].
The source of the paradoxes in the phenomenological theory is the expression for the entropy 4-flux Ss. For a
simple fluid, and for small deviations from equilibrium, one may write [6]
SM

n~M~S(n,p)+
Tq~ QM(~,qC1,1yaP).

(1)

NM is the numerical flux of particles, qM the heat flux, and ~

ir the shear and bulk stresses; n, p are the particle
and energy densities and the function S(n, p) is defined by the equilibrium equation of state. Conventional theory
assumes that the supplementary term QM vanishes. Although this is in fact correct to first order in the deviations
from equilibrium IT, qM, 11M1 kinetic theoretical arguments show that QM does not vanish (at least for a gas) when
second-order terms are taken into account. Even though the phenomenological laws can claim only first-order accuracy, to derive them the bilinear expression for entropy production VMSM is needed to second order. Neglect of
VMQM is therefore inconsistent except in the case where gradients of it, qM, ITMV are negligible on the scale of meanfree-path/collision time (quasi-stationary conditions).
To second order, the most general expression for QM has the form
2 + f3
TQM = ~0irqM a1iiMPq~+ 4uM(J30ir
1qVq~+ I32irAV,t~,)
(2)

in which the five coefficients a, ~ are undetermined functions of n, p. Inclusion of these second-order terms leads
to the following extension [6] of the conventional phenomenological equations for an arbitrary simple fluid:
4PV[~a~+13o* _a~V~qM], qM

IT =
=

_2p5(VMu) + j32jMV a1 V~q~>.

,cThMV[nTV.l~O/(p +p)

+ a0V~ir+ aiV~1r~1, (3a, b)

(3c)

~ Work partially supported by National Research Council of Canada, Science Research Council, U.K. and Kings College, Cambridge.
* On leave of absence from Theoretical Physics Institute, Physics Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

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Here = u~Vaf is the derivative along u,ha~=

+ uaup is the spatial projection operator, (X~)= (h~h~
4h0l3h~)x78is the trace-free part of the symmetrized spatial projection of X~
and Th = (p +P TS)/n is the
relativistic chemical potential per particle.
The 4-velocity u~entering (3) is the time-like eigenvector of the energy tensor T~,so that we have the decompositions
f

T~=pu~u~
+(P+it)h~4~
+
7TXM, NM

=fl[UM

qM/(p +P)].

In the quasi-stationary limit, when gradients of it, qM, itMP can be neglected, eqs. (3) reduce to the equations given
by Landau Lifshitz [9] A formally somewhat different but physically equivalent formulation can be given [3] in
terms of a 4-velocity parallel to the number flux NM, which reduces in the quasi-stationary limit to the equations
given by Eckart [10].
Eqs. (3) contain, in addition to the three familiar transport coefficients ic (thermal conductivity), p5 and Py
(shear and bulk viscosities), five new phenomenological coefficients: three relaxation times (proportional to a0~a1,
~2)and two coefficients a0, a1 which couple heat flow to the viscous stresses.
It should be noted that if the new coefficients a0, a1, a~,
a1, a2 are computed from kinetic theory, then unlike
K, /~,Pv they do not depend on the details of
the
collision
terms.
For= example
consider
a Maxwell-Boltzmann
2/kT. The enthalpy isi~
(p + P)/nm
and the
ratio of specific heatsgas
whose
molecules
have
mass
m,
and
set
a
=
mc
7 ~5 given by 71ev 1) = a2(l ~2 + so/a). Let
= 375 371(oa), ~~l*= 537 + 3(10 7y)n/a,
&2** = 537 372/[(7
-

Then
a
0

(y

l)~**/(7F~),
a1

= (~

1 = [(y
1)17] 2 [a/(~F)]
[5~2
In the non-relativistic limit (~ 00)

a0

l)/(yP),

1)],

a2

2p~2),
=

3~*/(0

(4)

2P).
=

(1 +

6n/13)/(2o

2i~,
a
1~a/P, a24/F.

04a/P, a1~~/P,a0~4a

In the ultra-relativistic limit

1,

a0 ~1P, a1

1,

-~

-~1P,

(j3

0)

a0

216j3

_4,

1F,

j31

sill

-j,,~.z-,

~2

~ P.

Effects
connected
with bulk
viscosity are unimportant
in both
of these are
limits,
because
and
of order
f$ when
0. (Expressions
for the transport
coefficients
given
in ref.PV/PS
[11]).
To derive (3) and (4), one proceeds from an equation of the form

v~,JN(x,

p)pXpMpV

d4p

(collision term)

as2a

~a

-~

00

(5)

obtained by taking second moments of the Boltzmann collision equation. This is linearized by decomposing the
distribution function as N = N
0(l
where N0(x, p) is a local equilibrium distribution, (which is fitted to the
actual distribution by requiring it to reproduce the same particle and 4-momentum densities [7], although other
matchings are possible [4]),
and neglecting squares of the deviation f(x, p). Heat flux and viscous stresses are
expressible as moments of N0f. The novel feature, as compared with the conventional Chapman-Enskog approach,
is that gradients off(x, p) are not neglected. Eqs. (3) and (4) now follow if we approximate the momentum-dependence off by a second-degree polynomial (14-moment approximation).
Alternatively, one can expand the entropy flux
3)jNlogNpM d4p
SM = (k/h
+f),

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PHYSICS LETTERS

6 September 1976

to second order inf. lhis yields (1), with

=

5(k/h3) N0f2pM d4p.

(6)

The coefficients can then be read off by comparing (2) with (6) in the 14-moment approximation.
It is worth adding a general comment on the nature of the approximation involved in this derivation. The collision term in the Boltzmann equation is of order N2fa NffA where a is the collision cross section and A the meanfree-path. Thus we have schematically VM(N P1
00) -Nf/A, where N00 is the global equilibrium distribution function for the undisturbed gas, which will not be homogeneous in the presence of gravity and rotation. Setting N
N0(l +f)yields

N~V~(N0 N00) + VJ+fNVMNOO f/A.

(7)

In the standard approximation one assumes that heat flux and viscosity vary over a length scale which is large compared to a mean-free-path, and VMf is dropped. However, this is not permissible for transient effects which decay
on the scale of a mean collision time.
The specific form (4) of our results (though not the general validity of the method) depends on the assumption
that the undisturbed state is sufficiently homogeneous that we can neglect products of VMNOO andf in (7).
The fact that the coefficients a, a are independent of coffision cross section implies that the speeds of thermal
and viscous effects (like the speed of sound) are purely thermodynamical functions. Studies of the characteristics
for a Boltzmann gas by Kranys [3] and (more completely) by Stewart [4] have shown that the system (3) is hyperbolic, and that thermal and viscous propagation 1/2c
speeds
generally
of the order
theupper
speedlimit
of sound,
withisthe
at are
high
temperatures.
In factofthis
(0.775c)
fastest mode
upperbylimit
of(3/5)
achieved
withapproaching
the matchingangiven
Stewart
[2, 4] The matchings due to Eckart [101and Landau and Lifschitz
[9] lead to a slightly smaller value, (0.765c) [3, 7] This is due to a difference in the definition of the bulk-viscous
term [4]The physical reasonableness of these results encourages the hope that the theory provides the key to a
long-standing puzzle in relativistic thermodynamics, and that it can be applied with some confidence to astrophysical problems.
-

References
[1] H. Grad, Commun. Pure AppL Math. 2(1949) 33!.
[2] J.M. Stewart, Nonequilibrium relativistic kinetic theory, Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer, Berlin 1971).
[3] M. Krany~,Arch. Rat. Mech. AnaL 48(1972) 274.
[4] J.M. Stewart, to be published.
[5] I. Mailer, Z. Physik 198 (1967) 329.
[6] W. Israel, Cal. Inst. ofTechnology preprint OAP-444; Annals of Physics, to be published.
[7] W. Israel and J.M. Stewart, to be published.
[8] B. Carter, Seminar, College de France, 23 May 1975.
[9] L. Landau and E. Lifshitz, Fluid mechanics (Pergamon, Oxford 1958) p. 500.
[101 C. Eckart, Phys. Rev. 58(1940) 919.
[11] W. Israel, The relativistic Boltzmann equation, in General relativity: papers in honour of S .L. Synge, ed. L. ORaifeartaigh
(Clarendon Press, Oxford 1972).

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