Stability analysis of first order hydrodynamics as IR effective theory

3 Jul 2026, 09:30
30m
MR3

MR3

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA United Kingdom

Speaker

Atsuhisa Ota (Chongqing University)

Description

In this talk we discuss the mode structure of general U(1)-charged first-order relativistic hydrodynamics, formulated within an effective field theory for dissipative fluids in flat Minkowski spacetime. Although first-order relativistic hydrodynamics is known to be ill-posed as a system of partial differential equations, we argue that this conclusion is potentially misleading because hydrodynamics is not a fundamental theory. We derive the most general quadratic action for hydrodynamic modes, including stochastic noise, and analyze the resulting dispersion relations within a controlled gradient expansion. We then show that frame-invariant combinations of hydrodynamic transport coefficients fix the first-order dispersion relations in the low-energy limit, making the mode analysis manifestly independent of the choice of hydrodynamic frame. Assuming local Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) symmetry and unitarity of the underlying UV theory, we find that first-order hydrodynamics is stable provided the enthalpy density is positive.

Author

Atsuhisa Ota (Chongqing University)

Presentation materials