Related papers: In search of the perfect fluid
Shear viscosity is a measure of the amount of dissipation in a simple fluid. In kinetic theory shear viscosity is related to the rate of momentum transport by quasi-particles, and the uncertainty relation suggests that the ratio of shear…
We review the modern view of fluid dynamics as an effective low energy, long wavelength theory of many body systems at finite temperature. We introduce the concept of a nearly perfect fluid, defined by a ratio $\eta/s$ of shear viscosity to…
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 $\hbar/4\pi k_B$ for a…
Eighty years ago Eyring proposed that the shear viscosity of a liquid, $\eta$, has a quantum limit $\eta \gtrsim n\hbar$ where $n$ is the density of the fluid. Using holographic duality and the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory…
It was recently conjectured that the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density, $ \eta/ s$, for any fluid always exceeds $\hbar/(4 \pi k_B)$. This conjecture was motivated by quantum field theoretic results obtained via the AdS/CFT…
We calculate the ratio eta/s, the shear viscosity (eta) to entropy density (s), which characterizes how perfect a fluid is, in weakly coupled real scalar field theories with different types of phase transitions. The mean-field results of…
Hydrodynamics and collision dominated transport are crucial to understand the slow dynamics of many correlated quantum liquids. The ratio \eta/s of the shear viscosity \eta to the entropy density s is uniquely suited to determine how…
The ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density $\eta/s$ of any material in nature has been conjectured to have a lower bound of $1/4\pi$, the famous KSS bound. We examine string theory models for evidence in favour of and against this…
The determination of the shear viscosity is a central topic in various areas of modern physics. In particular, it is often necessary to evaluate the shear viscosity $\eta$ of fluids made up of more than one species, all interacting with…
Elliptic flow measurements at RHIC suggest that quark gluon plasma flows with very little viscosity compared to weak coupling expectations, challenging theorists to explain why this fluid is so nearly ``perfect''. It is therefore vital to…
The viscosity of hadronic matter is studied using a classical evaluation of the scattering angle and a quantum mechanical discussion based on phase shifts from a potential. Semi classical limits of the quantum theory are presented. A hard…
We compute the shear viscosity of the unitary Fermi gas above the superfluid transition temperature, using a diagrammatic technique that starts from the exact Kubo formula. The formalism obeys a Ward identity associated with scale…
We present an ab initio calculation of the shear viscosity as a function of interaction strength in a two-component unpolarized Fermi gas near the unitary limit, within a finite temperature quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) framework and using the…
We consider an effective field theory description of beyond-quasi-particle excitations aiming to associate the transport properties of the system with the spectral density of states. Tuning various properties of the many-particle…
Starting from relativistic quantum field theories, Kovtun et al. (2005) have quite recently proposed a lower bound eta/s >= hbar /(4 pi kB), where eta is the shear viscosity and s the volume density of entropy for dense liquids. If their…
In this paper we address the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density $\eta/s$ in bosonic and fermionic superfluids. A small $\eta/s$ is associated with nearly perfect fluidity, and more general measures of the fluidity…
The relation of the shear viscosity coefficient to the recently introduced transport rate is derived within relativistic kinetic theory. We calculate the shear viscosity over entropy ratio \eta/s for a gluon gas, which involves elastic gg->…
The transport coefficients of strongly interacting matter are currently subject of intense theoretical and phenomenological studies due to their relevance for the characterization of the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultra relativistic…
Despite the viscosity of a fluid ranges over several orders of magnitudes and is extremely sensitive to microscopic structure and molecular interactions, it has been conjectured that its (opportunely normalized) minimum displays a universal…
In this perspective review, we present a concise yet multifaceted overview of the pivotal role played by the the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio across various physical contexts. After summarizing some of the main aspects of the…