Related papers: Is there a "most perfect fluid" consistent with qu…
This is a response to the comment, arXiv:0709.4651. It is noted that while the comment raises an extremely interesting and subtle point, the original conclusion that theoretically consistent exceptions exist for the proposed general bound…
Many counterexamples to the proposed KSS bound $\frac\eta s \ge \frac 1 {4\pi}$ depend on constructing systems with large numbers of species. As a result, the entropy density grows large and $\frac \eta s$ can be made arbitrarily small.…
For gauge theories with an Einstein gravity dual, the AdS/CFT correspondence predicts a universal value for the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density, $\eta/s=1/4\pi$. The holographic calculations have motivated the…
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…
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…
Shear viscosity measures the amount of internal friction in a simple fluid. In kinetic theory shear viscosity is related to momentum transport by quasi-particles, and the uncertainty relation implies that the ratio of shear viscosity eta to…
The anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence (AdS/CFT) has been used to determine a lower bound on the ratio of shear viscosity $\left(\eta\right)$ to entropy density $(s)$ for strongly-coupled field theories with a gravity…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence implies that small perturbations of a black hole correspond to small deviations from thermodynamic equilibrium in a dual field theory. For gauge theories with an Einstein…
There have been a number of forms of a conjecture that there is a universal lower bound on the ratio, eta/s, of the shear viscosity, eta, to entropy density, s, with several different domains of validity. We examine the various forms of the…
The ratio between the shear viscosity and the entropy $\eta/s$ is considered a universal measure of the strength of interactions in quantum systems. This quantity was conjectured to have a universal lower bound $(1/4\pi)\hbar/k_{B}$, which…
Transport coefficeints, in particular the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio is studied in systems where the small-width quasiparticle assumption is not valid. It is found that $\eta/s$ has no unversal lower bound, the minimal value…
A computation of the quotient of shear viscosity to entropy density, or KSS number $\eta/s$ is performed, in the non-relativistic and classical regime, first in Chiral Perturbation Theory, and then in the $SO(g+1)/SO(g)$ Non-Linear Sigma…
The lower bound of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio is examined using an exact representation of the ratio through the density of states. It is shown that the lower bound in a generic physical system is not universal, its value…
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,…
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…