Thermodynamics and bulk viscosity of approximate black hole duals to finite temperature quantum chromodynamics

2008/04/11 by Steven S. Gubser, Abhinav Nellore, Silviu S. Pufu +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.131601

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.101:131601,2008 · 5 pages, 1 figure

arxiv created 2008/04/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

We consider classes of translationally invariant black hole solutions whose equations of state closely resemble that of QCD at zero chemical potential. We use these backgrounds to compute the ratio zeta/s of bulk viscosity to entropy density. For a class of black holes that exhibits a first order transition, we observe a sharp rise in zeta/s near T_c. For constructions that exhibit a smooth cross-over, like QCD does, the rise in zeta/s is more modest. We conjecture that divergences in zeta/s for black hole horizons are related to extrema of the entropy density as a function of temperature.

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