English

eta/s is critical (at phase transitions)

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2009-04-24 v1

Abstract

The viscosity over entropy density ratio, or KSS number, can help isolate the critical point in the hadron phase-diagram in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. We argue that this quantity does have a minimum at a phase transition or crossover. Although indications from conventional non-relativistic gases point out to even a divergence in eta/s when the phase-transition is first-order, since the critical exponent is rather low, this will be more difficult to ascertain in RHIC or FAIR. The experimental data are more likely to reveal a discontinuity for a first order phase transition or a smooth minimum at a crossover.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.2203,
  title  = {eta/s is critical (at phase transitions)},
  author = {Antonio Dobado and Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada and Juan M. Torres-Rincon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.2203},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

3-pages, 2 figures, contribution to XIII Mexican School of Particles and Fields, to be published in AIP-proceedings

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:50:58.708Z