Physics Department Colloquia |
Events on Friday, November 15th, 2013
- Viscosity, Quark Gluon Plasma, and String Theory
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
- Speaker: Dam Son, University of Chicago
- Abstract: Viscosity is a very old concept which was introduced to physics by Navier in the 19th century. However, in strongly coupled systems, viscosity is difficult to compute from first principle. In this talk I will describe some recent surprising developments in string theory which allow one to compute the viscosity for a class of strongly interacting quantum fluids not too dissimilar to the quark gluon plasma. The approach has lead to a new understanding of the effects of quantum anomalies in relativistic fluid dynamics. I will describe efforts to measure the viscosity and other physical properties of the quark gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy ion collisions.
- Host: Hashimoto