The Chapman-Enskog approximation for a relativistic charged gas in the trace-fixed particle frame

Abstract: In this article we provide a thorough discussion of the first-order Chapman-Enskog approximation for a relativistic simple charged gas propagating in an arbitrary fixed background spacetime and electromagnetic field. Motivated by a rigorous study of the linearized collision operator, we argue that the most natural thermodynamic frame to describe dissipative relativistic fluids is the trace-fixed particle frame. This frame determines the state variables by requiring compatibility of the first few moments of the one-particle distribution function with those of the J\"uttner distribution. The resulting constitutive relations are derived, and it is shown that the corresponding transport coefficients are, in fact, frame-independent if suitably defined. Moreover, we discuss the representation freedom for these relations within the microscopic approach. As shown in previous work, when this freedom is suitably exploited, the resulting fluid theory gives rise to strongly hyperbolic and causal evolution equations for which global equilibria are stable.