Deformations of the AdS–Schwarzschild black brane and the shear viscosity of the quark–gluon plasma

Abstract

Deformations of the \(\hbox {AdS}_5\)–Schwarzschild black brane, implemented in the AdS/CFT membrane paradigm, are scrutinized in the dual viscous hydrodynamic infrared limit. The latest experimental data analyses, regarding the shear viscosity-to-entropy density ratio of the quark–gluon plasma produced by heavy-ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC, are shown to constrain these deformations severely. Although corroborating with the robustness of the standard \(\hbox {AdS}_5\)–Schwarzschild black brane against deformations, there is still a margin for mild deformations which may carry two-loop quantum corrections to gravity, whose implications to the strongly coupled dual field theory are addressed and discussed.