ROBERTSON-WALKER COSMOLOGICAL MODELS WITH BULK VISCOSITY IN BRANS-DICKE THEORY

Abstract

Bulk viscosity is expected to play an important role in cosmology, especially with regard to various dissipative processes which are believed to occur at certain stages of the evolution of the universe. By now bulk viscosity has been well studied in general relativity, both in the Robertson-Walker cosmological models as well as in the other Bianchi models. However, its role in alternative theories of gravity has not been studied much. Brans-Dicke theory is the most seriously considered alternative to general relativity. In this paper, some Robertson-Walker cosmological models are derived in Brans-Dicke theory which could be relevant to the inflationary scenario.