Are there non-perfect fluid stress-energy tensors in GR?

  • Thread starter TrickyDicky
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In summary, the conversation discusses the search for stress-energy tensors (SETs) from exact solutions of the Einstein field equations (EFE) that correspond physically to matter. The conversation excludes vacuum solutions and pure radiation, and focuses on finding SETs for matter that are not perfect fluids. The conversation mentions the existence of solutions for rings, disks, and shells of matter, but it is uncertain if these include interiors or are vacuum solutions. It is then stated that solid matter allows for arbitrary SETs due to the presence of shear stress. The conversation also discusses the decomposition of the EFE and the density of perfect fluids, and mentions a paper that provides an example of a static spherically symmetric metric with different radial and transverse pressures, resulting
  • #36
TrickyDicky said:
Right, but I'm back to my previous concern, why is this imperfect fluid solution not preferred over the perfect fluid one then?
It is more complicated. It has two free functions instead of just one.
 
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  • #37
DaleSpam said:
It is more complicated. It has two free functions instead of just one.

Compared to the physical advantage that it provides this doesn't seem very relevant.
 

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