EQUATIONS OF STATE AND PLANE-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS IN BIANCHI-V IMPERFECT FLUID COSMOLOGY

A new general approach for investigating imperfect fluid cosmological models is introduced in which the equations of state are completely "dimensionless." Such equations of state are then utilized to reduce the Einstein field equations governing Bianchi V imperfect fluid cosmologies to a plane-autonomous system of equations, thus enabling the qualitative behavior of these cosmological models to be analyzed in a straightforward manner. The resulting plane-autonomous system is investigated. Finally, exact solutions of the Bianchi V imperfect fluid field equations in the case when the equations of state take on a particularly simple form are discussed. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.