Relativistic viscous hydrodynamics for heavy-ion collisions: A comparison between the Chapman-Enskog and Grad methods

Abstract: Derivations of relativistic second-order dissipative hydrodynamic equations have relied almost exclusively on the use of Grad's 14-moment approximation to write $f(x,p)$, the nonequilibrium distribution function in the phase space. Here we consider an alternative Chapman-Enskog-like method, which, unlike Grad's, involves a small expansion parameter. We derive an expression for $f(x,p)$ to second order in this parameter. We show analytically that while Grad's method leads to the violation of the experimentally observed $1/\sqrt{m_T}$ scaling of the longitudinal femtoscopic radii, the alternative method does not exhibit such an unphysical behavior. We compare numerical results for hadron transverse-momentum spectra and femtoscopic radii obtained in these two methods, within the one-dimensional scaling expansion scenario. Moreover, we demonstrate a rapid convergence of the Chapman-Enskog-like expansion up to second order. This leads to an expression for $\delta f(x,p)$ which provides a better alternative to Grad's approximation for hydrodynamic modeling of relativistic heavy-ion collisions.