Is there a "most perfect fluid" consistent with quantum field theory?

Abstract

It was recently conjectured that the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density, $ η/ s$, for any fluid always exceeds $\hbar/(4 πk_B)$. This conjecture was motivated by quantum field theoretic results obtained via the AdS/CFT correspondence and from empirical data with real fluids. A theoretical counterexample to this bound can be constructed from a nonrelativistic gas by increasing the number of species in the fluid while keeping the dynamics essentially independent of the species type. The question of whether the underlying structure of relativistic quantum field theory generically inhibits the realization of such a system and thereby preserves the possibility of a universal bound is considered here. Using rather conservative assumptions, it is shown here that a metastable gas of heavy mesons in a particular controlled regime of QCD provides a realization of the counterexample and is consistent with a well-defined underlying relativistic quantum field theory. Thus, quantum field theory appears to impose no lower bound on $η/s$, at least for metastable fluids.