Violations of conservation laws in viscous liquid dynamics

TL;DR

This paper discusses how conservation laws such as momentum, energy, and particle number appear violated in viscous liquids due to experimental interactions and coarse-grained descriptions, challenging traditional assumptions.

Contribution

It highlights the apparent violations of fundamental conservation laws in viscous liquids under laboratory conditions and in coarse-grained models, providing new insights into their dynamics.

Findings

Conservation of momentum and energy are violated in viscous liquids due to measurement interactions.

Particle number conservation appears violated in coarse-grained descriptions of viscous liquids.

Viscous liquids' solidity influences the apparent violation of conservation laws.

Abstract

The laws expressing conservation of momentum and energy apply to any isolated system, but these laws are violated for for highly viscous liquids under laboratory conditions because of the unavoidable interactions with the measuring equipment over the long times needed to study the dynamics. Although particle number conservation applies strictly for any liquid, the solidity of viscous liquids implies that even this conservation law is apparently violated in coarse-grained descriptions of density fluctuations.