Journal Article

Relativistic magnetohydrodynamics

Kovtun, Pavel, Hernandez, Juan

2017

Overview

A bstract We present the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics coupled to dynamical electromagnetic fields, including the effects of polarization, electric fields, and the derivative expansion. We enumerate the transport coefficients at leading order in derivatives, including electrical conductivities, viscosities, and thermodynamic coefficients. We find the constraints on transport coefficients due to the positivity of entropy production, and derive the corresponding Kubo formulas. For the neutral state in a magnetic field, small fluctuations include Alfvén waves, magnetosonic waves, and the dissipative modes. For the state with a non-zero dynamical charge density in a magnetic field, plasma oscillations gap out all propagating modes, except for Alfvén-like waves with a quadratic dispersion relation. We relate the transport coefficients in the “conventional” magnetohydrodynamics (formulated using Maxwell’s equations in matter) to those in the “dual” version of magnetohydrodynamics (formulated using the conserved magnetic flux).

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V,SpringerOpen
• Subject: Charge density / Classical and Quantum Gravitation / Electric fields / Electromagnetic fields / Elementary Particles / High energy physics / Holography and quark-gluon plasmas / Magnetic fields / Magnetic flux / Magnetohydrodynamic waves / Magnetohydrodynamics / Mathematical analysis / Maxwell's equations / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / Plasma oscillations / Propagation modes / Quantum Field Theories / Quantum Field Theory / Quantum Physics / Regular Article - Theoretical Physics / Relativistic effects / Relativity Theory / String Theory / Thermal expansion / Thermal Field Theory / Transport properties / Wave propagation