Vorticity and entropy production in tilted Szekeres spacetimes

Abstract

We analyze the properties of the tilted Szekeres spacetime, i.e. the version of such spacetime as seen by a congruence of observers with respect to which the fluid is moving. The imperfect fluid and the kinematical variables associated to the four-velocity of the fluid assigned by tilted observers are studied in detail. As it happens for the case of the Lemaitre--Tolman--Bondi spacetime, the fluid evolves nonreversibly (with nonvanishing entropy production) and is nongeodesic. However unlike that later case, the tilted observer detects vorticity in the congruence of the fluid world lines. Also, as for the nontilted congruence the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor vanishes, reinforcing the nonradiative character of this kind of spacetime. Possible physical implications of these results are discussed.