Anisotropic Hydrodynamics: Motivation and Methodology

Abstract: In this proceedings contribution I review recent progress in our understanding of the bulk dynamics of relativistic systems that possess potentially large local rest frame momentum-space anisotropies. In order to deal with these momentum-space anisotropies, a reorganization of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics can been made around an anisotropic background, and the resulting dynamical framework has been dubbed "anisotropic hydrodynamics." I also discuss expectations for the degree of momentum-space anisotropy of the quark gluon plasma generated in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC from second-order viscous hydrodynamics, strong-coupling approaches, and weak-coupling approaches.