Constraining relativistic viscous hydrodynamical evolution

Abstract

We show that by requiring positivity of the longitudinal pressure it is possible to constrain the initial conditions one can use in 2nd-order viscous hydrodynamical simulations of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We demonstrate this explicitly for 0+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamics and discuss how the constraint extends to higher dimensions. Additionally, we present an analytic approximation to the solution of 0+1 dimensional 2nd-order viscous hydrodynamical evolution equations appropriate to describe the evolution of matter in an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision.