Andrei Starinets

Abstract:

Using gauge theory/gravity duality we study sound wave propagation in strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theory plasma. We compute the speed of sound and the bulk viscosity of N = 2* supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills plasma at a temperature much larger than the mass scale of the theory in the limit of large Nc and large 't Hooft coupling. The speed of sound is computed both from the equation of state and the hydrodynamic pole in the stress-energy tensor two-point correlation function. Both computations lead to the same result. Bulk viscosity is determined by computing the attenuation constant of the sound wave mode. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We study the hydrodynamics of the high-energy phase of Little String Theory. The poles of the retarded two-point function of the stress energy tensor contain information about the speed of sound and the kinetic coefficients, such as shear and bulk viscosity. We compute this two-point function in the dual string theory and analytically continue it to lorentzian signature. We perform an independent check of our results by the lorentzian supergravity calculation in the background of non-extremal NS5-branes. The speed of sound vanishes at the Hagedorn temperature. The ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density is equal to the universal value 1/4π and does not receive α′ corrections. The ratio of bulk viscosity to entropy density equals 1/10π. We also compute the R-charge diffusion constant. In addition to the hydrodynamic singularities, the correlators have an infinite series of finite-gap poles, and a massless pole with zero attenuation. © SISSA 2005.