Stability and causality in the Israel-Stewart energy frame theory (Q803002)

The author examined the stability, causality and hyperbolic properties of the theory of relativistic hydrodynamics under the framework of the linearized Israel-Stewart theory [\textit{W. Israel} and \textit{J. M. Stewart}, Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A 365, 43-52 (1979)]. In particular, the fluid four-velocity was chosen to be a time-like eigenvector of the stress-energy tensor. The author proved that if the prescribed fluid has stable equilibria, then linear perturbations propagate subliminally and obey a symmetric hyperbolic system of equations. The converse is also true. Thus stability is equivalent to causality and hyperbolicity.