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Viscosity in Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories from Black Hole Physics

Pavel K. Kovtun, Dam Thanh Son, Andrei O. Starinets

Physical Review Letters · 2005 · 2,853 citationsOpen access

doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.94.111601Free full text

Abstract

The ratio of shear viscosity to volume density of entropy can be used to characterize how close a given fluid is to being perfect. Using string theory methods, we show that this ratio is equal to a universal value of variant Planck's over 2pi/4pik(B) for a large class of strongly interacting quantum field theories whose dual description involves black holes in anti-de Sitter space. We provide evidence that this value may serve as a lower bound for a wide class of systems, thus suggesting that black hole horizons are dual to the most ideal fluids.

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Kovtun, P. K., Son, D. T., & Starinets, A. O. (2005). Viscosity in strongly interacting quantum field theories from black hole physics. Physical Review Letters, 94(11), 111601. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.94.111601

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