Viscosity Bound and Causality Violation

2008/02/29 by Mauro Brigante, Hong Liu, Robert C. Myers +3 · 14 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Causality (physics) #Conformal map #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Entropy (arrow of time) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Shear viscosity #Theoretical physics #Thermodynamics #Upper and lower bounds #Viscosity #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.191601

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.100:191601,2008 · 5 pages, 2 figures; v2: a slight change in the title and minor revisions made, references updated

openalex publication_date 2008/05/15 · arxiv created 2008/05/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

In recent work we showed that, for a class of conformal field theories (CFT) with Gauss-Bonnet gravity dual, the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, eta/s, could violate the conjectured Kovtun-Starinets-Son viscosity bound, eta/s > or = 1/4 pi. In this Letter we argue, in the context of the same model, that tuning eta/s below (16/25)(1/4 pi) induces microcausality violation in the CFT, rendering the theory inconsistent. This is a concrete example in which inconsistency of a theory and a lower bound on viscosity are correlated, supporting the idea of a possible universal lower bound on eta/s for all consistent theories.

Citations

• Effect of shear viscosity on spectra, elliptic flow, and Hanbury Brown–Twiss radii
• A sticky business: the status of the conjectured viscosity/entropy density bound
• Bound on viscosity and the generalized second law of thermodynamics
• Minkowski-space correlators in AdS/CFT correspondence: recipe and applications
• Simulating elliptic flow with viscous hydrodynamics
• Viscosity Information from Relativistic Nuclear Collisions: How Perfect is the Fluid Observed at RHIC?
• Viscosity in Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories from Black Hole Physics
• Shear Viscosity of Strongly CoupledN<mml:mspace/>=<mml:mspace/>4Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Plasma
• The Large-N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity
• Flux compactification
• The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity

Cited by

• Consistency between Bulk and Boundary Causalities in Asymptotically Anti-de Sitter Spacetimes
• Holographic GB gravity in arbitrary dimensions
• Lovelock theories, holography and the fate of the viscosity bound
• Holographic Duality with a View Toward Many‐Body Physics
• Shear viscosity to entropy density ratio in higher derivative gravity with momentum dissipation
• Holographic multi-condensate with nonlinear terms
• Higher order curvature corrections and holographic renormalization group flow
• On graviton non-gaussianities during inflation
• Strongly coupled electron fluids in the Poiseuille regime
• Generalized pure Lovelock gravity
• Five easy pieces: The dynamics of quarks in strongly coupled plasmas
• From thermodynamics to the bound on viscosity
• Holographic constraints on a vector boson
• Relative entropy, mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly and causality