The Brown-Kuchar mechanism is applied in the case of General Relativity coupled with the Schutz model for a perfect fluid. Using the canonical formalism and manipulating the set of modified constraints one is able to recover the definition of a time
evolution operator, i.e. a physical Hamiltonian, expressed as a functional of gravitational variables and the entropy.
The problem of time is an unsolved issue of canonical General Relativity. A possible solution is the Brown-Kuchar mechanism which couples matter to the gravitational field and recovers a physical, i.e. non vanishing, observable Hamiltonian functional
by manipulating the set of constraints. Two cases are analyzed. A generalized scalar fluid model provides an evolutionary picture, but only in a singular case. The Schutz model provides an interesting singularity free result: the entropy per baryon enters the definition of the physical Hamiltonian. Moreover in the co-moving frame one is able to identify the time variable tau with the logarithm of entropy.
