Viscous modes, isocurvature perturbations and CMB initial conditions

Abstract

When the predecoupling plasma is thermodynamically reversible its fluctuations are classified in terms of the adiabatic and entropic modes. A different category of physical solutions, so far unexplored, arises when the inhomogeneities of the viscosity coefficients induce computable curvature perturbations. The viscous modes are explicitly illustrated and compared with the conventional isocurvature solutions.