Transport Coefficients of Relativistic Matter: A Detailed Formalism with a Gross Knowledge of Their Magnitude

Abstract

The present review article has attempted a compact formalism description of transport coefficient calculations for relativistic fluid, which is expected in heavy ion collision experiments. Here, we first address the macroscopic description of relativistic fluid dynamics and then its microscopic description based on the kinetic theory framework. We also address different relaxation time approximation-based models in Boltzmann transport equations, which make a sandwich between Macro and Micro frameworks of relativistic fluid dynamics and finally provide different microscopic expressions of transport coefficients like the fluid’s shear viscosity and bulk viscosity. In the numeric part of this review article, we put stress on the two gross components of transport coefficient expressions: relaxation time and thermodynamic phase-space part. Then, we try to tune the relaxation time component to cover earlier theoretical estimations and experimental data-driven estimations for RHIC and LHC matter. By this way of numerical understanding, we provide the final comments on the values of transport coefficients and relaxation time in the context of the (nearly) perfect fluid nature of the RHIC or LHC matter.

Keywords

• heavy ion collisions
• relativistic fluid
• Boltzmann transport equation
• transport coefficients
• relaxation time approximation
• Chapman–Enskog approximation