Viscous Ricci dark energy

We investigate the viscous Ricci dark energy (RDE) model by assuming that there is bulk viscosity in the linear barotropic fluid and the RDE. In the RDE model without bulk viscosity, the universe is younger than some old objects at certain redshifts. Since the age of the universe should be longer than any objects living in the universe, the RDE model suffers the age problem, especially when we consider the object APM 08279 + 5255 at z = 3.91 with age t = 2.1 Gyr. In this Letter, we find that once the viscosity is taken into account, this age problem is alleviated. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.