Relativistic bulk viscous fluids of Burgers type and their presence in neutron stars

Abstract

Abstract It is well known that a mixture of two chemical components undergoing one chemical reaction is a bulk viscous fluid, where the bulk stress evolves according to the Israel-Stewart theory. Here, we show that a mixture of three independent chemical components undergoing two distinct chemical reactions can also be viewed as a bulk viscous fluid, whose bulk stress now is governed by a second-order differential equation which reproduces the Burgers model for viscoelasticity. This is a rigorous and physically motivated example of a fluid model where the viscous stress does not undergo simple Maxwell-Cattaneo relaxation, and can actually overshoot the Navier–Stokes stress. We show that, if one accounts for muons, neutron star matter is indeed a bulk viscous fluid of Burgers type.