Generic instabilities in the relativistic Chapman–Enskog heat conduction law

Abstract

We address the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem corresponding to the relativistic fluid equations, when coupled with the heat-flux constitutive relation arising within the relativistic Chapman-Enskog procedure. The resulting system of equations is shown to be non hyperbolic, by considering general perturbations over the whole set of equations written with respect to a generic time direction. The obtained eigenvalues are not purely imaginary and their real part grows without bound as the wave-number increases. Unlike Eckart's theory, this instability is not present when the time direction is aligned with the fluid's direction. However, since in general the fluid velocity is not surface-forming, the instability can only be avoided in the particular case where no rotation is present.