https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2005-10301-2
Quark-Gluon-Plasma Thermalization
Transport coefficients of strongly coupled gauge theories: Insights from string theory
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, N2L 2Y5, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
* e-mail: starina@perimeterinstitute.ca
Received:
26
November
2005
Accepted:
2
January
2006
Published online:
3
August
2006
The transport properties of certain strongly coupled thermal gauge theories can be determined from their effective description in terms of gravity or superstring theory duals. Here we provide a short summary of the results for the shear and bulk viscosity, charge diffusion constant, and the speed of sound in supersymmetric strongly interacting plasmas. We also outline a general algorithm for computing transport coefficients in any gravity dual. The algorithm relates the transport coefficients to the coefficients in the quasinormal spectrum of five-dimensional black holes in asymptotically anti de Sitter space.
PACS: 11.25.Hf Conformal field theory, algebraic structures – / 11.10.Wx Finite-temperature field theory –
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2006