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Energy-momentum response to metric perturbations in the fluid dynamic regime

Tim Stoetzel*, Rebekka Fechtner†, and Stefan Floerchinger‡

  • *Contact author: tim.stoetzel@uni-jena.de
  • †Contact author: rebekka.fechtner@stud.uni-heidelberg.de
  • ‡Contact author: stefan.floerchinger@uni-jena.de
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 125006 – Published 3 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qv18-3x4j

Abstract

The interplay of relativistic fluid dynamics and spacetime geometry is discussed in the regime of small wave numbers and frequencies. A combination of gravitational Ward identities and fluid dynamic equations of motion in the Mueller-Israel-Stewart formulation is used to explicitly determine the retarded linear response of the energy-momentum tensor to metric perturbations. We also discuss applications to gravitational wave production and the damping of gravitational waves in a relativistic fluid.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 125006– Published 3 December, 2025
  • Received 29 August 2025
  • Accepted 10 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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