English

Ratio of viscosity to entropy density in a strongly coupled one-component plasma

Plasma Physics 2009-08-03 v2 Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Theory

Abstract

String theoretical arguments led to the hypothesis that the ratio of viscosity to entropy of any physical system has a lower bound. Strongly coupled systems usually have a small viscosity compared to weakly coupled plasmas in which the viscosity is proportional to the mean free path. In the case of a one-component plasma the viscosity as a function of the coupling strength shows a minimum. Here we show that the ratio of viscosity to entropy of a strongly coupled one-component plasma is always above the lower bound predicted by string theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0803.4407,
  title  = {Ratio of viscosity to entropy density in a strongly coupled one-component plasma},
  author = {Markus H. Thoma and Gregor E. Morfill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.4407},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, revised version to be published in Europhysics Letters