Stochastic fluctuations in relativistic fluids: causality, stability, and the information current

Abstract

We develop a general formalism for introducing stochastic fluctuations around thermodynamic equilibrium which takes into account, for the first time, recent developments on the causality and stability properties of relativistic hydrodynamic theories. The method is valid for any covariantly stable theory of relativistic viscous fluid dynamics derived from a covariant maximum entropy principle. We illustrate the formalism with some applications, showing how it could be used to consistently introduce fluctuations in a model of relativistic heat diffusion, and in conformally invariant Israel-Stewart theory in a general hydrodynamic frame. The latter example is used to study the hydrodynamic frame dependence of the symmetric two-point function of fluctuations of the energy-momentum tensor.