VISCOUS-FLUID IN A KALUZA-KLEIN METRIC

Exact solutions are obtained in a five-dimensional space-time with an energy-momentum tensor containing a viscous fluid, assuming either an equation of state or a special form for the viscous term in line with the assumption of Belinskii and Khalatnikov (1977). The solutions are, in fact, generalizations of an earlier work by Grøn for a perfect fluid in the 5D rest-mass varying theory of gravity proposed recently by Wesson. It is found that dimensional reduction of the extra space takes place in some of the cases such that the 5-dimensional universe naturally evolves into an effective 4-dimensional one. A huge amount of entropy can be produced following this shrinkage of extra-dimension which may account for the very large value of entropy per baryon observed in our 4D world. Moreover, the observed constancy of the rest-mass in the present era is also interpreted. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.