The relativistic Burgers equation on a FLRW background and its finite volume approximation

A relativistic generalization of the inviscid Burgers equation was proposed by LeFloch, Makhlof, and Okutmustur and then investigated on a Schwarzschild background. Here, we extend their analysis to a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) background. This problem is more challenging due to the existence of non-trivial spatially homogeneous solutions. First, we derive the relativistic Burgers model of interest and determine its spatially homogeneous solutions. Second, we design a numerical scheme based on the finite volume methodology, which is well-balanced in the sense that spatially homogeneous solutions are preserved at the discrete level of approximation. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method for weak solutions containing shock waves.