Scientists have long been familiar with such relaxation effects as a reduction in length and slowing down when the object moves at speeds close to the speed of light. However, new studies show that there are other less well-known effects that can be important for understanding physics of high energies.
Research, published in the Physical Review E, describes the new theory The viscosity of the liquid, which takes into account the effects of the special theory of relativity. The basis of the study was the recent formulation of the relativistic equation of Lanzheven, describing the microscopic movements of particles under the influence of the external field. Thanks to this model, it was possible to explain how interactions and collisions between particles lead to the dissipation of the pulse in the liquid during its movement.
According to this theory, the viscosity of the liquid at relativistic speeds is proportional to the usual viscosity multiplied by the Lorentz factor, which is consistent with well-known experiments and allows us to proceed to classic results for gas at low speeds. However, with extremely high energies, such as in plasma of quarks and gluons, the theory predicts a new dependence of viscosity on temperature, which can open the way to the new fundamental law of physics.
Moreover, the authors discovered the possibility of a new effect called the “compaction of the liquid”, which is similar to reducing the length and slowing down time, and which can play an important role in understanding the behavior of high-energy plasma in astrophysics and physics of elementary particles.