On Eling-Oz formula for the holographic bulk viscosity

Abstract

Recently Eling and Oz [1] proposed a simple formula for the bulk viscosity of holographic plasma. They argued that the formula is valid in the high temperature (near-conformal) regime, but is expected to break down at low temperatures. We point out that the formula is in perfect agreement with the previous computations of the bulk viscosity of the cascading plasma [2,3], as well as with the previous computations of the bulk viscosity of N=2^* plasma [4,5]. In the latter case it correctly reproduces the critical behaviour of the bulk viscosity in the vicinity of the critical point with the vanishing speed of sound.