On the Role of Viscosity in Early Cosmology

Abstract

We present a discussion of the effects induced by bulk viscosity on the very early Universe stability. The viscosity coefficient is assumed to be related to the energy density $\rho$ via a power-law of the form $\zeta=\zeta_0 \rho^s$ (where $\zeta_0, s=const.$) and the behavior of the density contrast in analyzed. In particular, we study both Einstein and hydrodynamic equations up to first and second order in time in the so-called quasi-isotropic collapsing picture near the cosmological singularity. As a result, we get a power-law solution existing only in correspondence to a restricted domain of $\zeta_0$. The particular case of pure isotropic FRW dynamics is then analyzed and we show how the asymptotic approach to the initial singularity admits an unstable collapsing picture.