Viscosity in cosmic fluids

Abstract

The effective theory of large-scale structure formation based on Lambda CDM paradigm predicts finite dissipative effects in the resulting fluid equations. In this work, we study how viscous effect that could arise if one includes self-interaction among the dark-matter particles combines with the effective theory. It is shown that these two possible sources of dissipation can operate together in a cosmic fluid and the interplay between them can play an important role in determining dynamics of the cosmic fluid. In particular, we demonstrate that the viscosity coefficient due to self-interaction is added inversely with the viscosity calculated using effective theory of Lambda CDM model. Thus the larger viscosity has less significant contribution in the effective viscosity. Using the known bounds on sigma /m for self-interacting darkmatter, where sigma and m are the cross-section and mass of the dark-matter particles respectively, we discuss role of the effective viscosity in various cosmological scenarios.