Bulk viscosity effects on elliptic flow

Abstract

The effects of bulk viscosity on the elliptic flow ν 2 are studied using realistic equation of state and realistic transport coefficients. We find that the bulk viscosity acts in a non trivial manner on ν 2 . At low p T , the reduction of ν 2 is even more effective compared to the case of shear viscosity, whereas at high p T , an enhancement of ν 2 compared to the ideal case is observed. We argue that this is caused by the competition of the critical behavior of the equation of state and the transport coefficients.