http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.1967
We use a dynamical systems approach based on the method of orthonormal frames to study the dynamics of a two-fluid, non-tilted Bianchi Type I cosmological model. In our model, one of the fluids is a fluid with bulk viscosity, while the other fluid assumes the role of a cosmological constant and represents nonnegative vacuum energy. We begin by completing a detailed fixed-point analysis of the system which gives information about the local sinks, sources and saddles. We then proceed to analyze the global features of the dynamical system by using topological methods such as finding Lyapunov and Chetaev functions, and finding the $\alpha$- and $\omega$-limit sets using the LaSalle invariance principle. The fixed points found were a flat Friedmann-LeMa\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe with no vacuum energy, a de Sitter universe, a flat FLRW universe with both vacuum and non-vacuum energy, and a Kasner quarter-circle universe. We also show in this paper that the vacuum energy we observe in our present-day universe could actually be a result of the bulk viscosity of the ordinary matter in the universe, and proceed to calculate feasible values of the bulk viscous coefficient based on observations reported in the Planck data. We conclude the paper with some numerical experiments that shed further light on the global dynamics of the system.
I. Kohli and M. Haslam
Tue, 11 Feb 14
43/55