Godunov Variables in Relativistic Fluid Dynamics

This note presents Godunov variables and 4-potentials for the relativistic Euler equations of barotropic fluids. The associated additional conservation/ production law has different interpretations for different fluids. In particular it refers to ENTROPY in the case of thermobarotropic fluids, and to MATTER in the case of isentropic fluids. The paper also presents an explicit formula for the generating function of the Euler equations in the case of ideal gases. It pursues ideas on symmetric hyperbolicity going back to Godunov (cf. also Lax and Friedrichs as well as Boillat) that were elaborated as Ruggeri and Strumia’s theory of convex covariant density systems.