Quantum corrections to eta/s

Abstract

We consider corrections to the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density in strongly coupled nonabelian plasmas using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular, higher derivative terms with the five-form RR flux, which have been ignored in all previous calculations, are included. This provides the first reliable calculation of the leading order correction in the inverse 't Hooft coupling to the celebrated result eta/s=1/4pi. The leading correction in inverse powers of the number of colours is computed. Our results hold very generally for quiver gauge theories with an internal manifold L_pqr in the holographic dual. Our analysis implies that the thermal properties of these theories will not be affected by the five-form flux terms at this order.