We investigate the phase space dynamics of a bulk viscosity model in the Eckart approach for a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We have included two barotropic fluids and a dark energy component. One of the barotropic fluids is treated as an imperfect fluid having bulk viscosity, whereas the other components are assumed to behave as perfect fluids. Both barotropic fluids are identified as either radiation or dark matter. Considering that the bulk viscosity acts on either radiation or dark matter, we find that viscous phantom solutions with stable behavior are not allowed in the framework of complete cosmological dynamics. Only an almost zero value of the bulk viscosity allows a transition from a radiation-dominated to a matter-dominated epoch, which then evolves to an accelerated late time expansion, dominated by dark energy.

• Received 1 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.083524