Viscosity in cosmic fluids

The effective theory of large-scale structure formation based on $$\Lambda $$CDM paradigm predicts finite dissipative effects in the resulting fluid equations. In this work, we study how viscous effect that could arise if one includes self-interaction among the dark-matter particles combines with the effective theory. It is shown that these two possible sources of dissipation can operate together in a cosmic fluid and the interplay between them can play an important role in determining dynamics of the cosmic fluid. In particular, we demonstrate that the viscosity coefficient due to self-interaction is added inversely with the viscosity calculated using effective theory of $$\Lambda $$CDM model. Thus the larger viscosity has less significant contribution in the effective viscosity. Using the known bounds on $$\sigma /m$$ for self-interacting darkmatter, where $$\sigma $$ and m are the cross-section and mass of the dark-matter particles respectively, we discuss role of the effective viscosity in various cosmological scenarios