Bulk viscosity of N=2* plasma
Abstract
We use gauge theory/string theory correspondence to study the bulk viscosity of strongly coupled, mass deformed SU(Nc) N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma, also known as N=2* gauge theory. For a wide range of masses we confirm the bulk viscosity bound proposed in arXiv:0708.3459. For a certain choice of masses, the theory undergoes a phase transition with divergent specific heat cV ~ |1-Tc/T|(-1/2). We show that, although bulk viscosity rapidly grows as T -> Tc, it remains finite in the vicinity of the critical point.
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