Higher derivative holography and temperature dependence of QGP viscosities

TL;DR

This paper explores how higher derivative corrections in holographic models affect the temperature-dependent viscosities of quark-gluon plasma, aiming to reconcile theoretical predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces higher derivative corrections into holographic QGP models and matches these with Bayesian analysis results to improve understanding of viscosity temperature dependence.

Findings

Higher derivative corrections impact viscosity predictions.

Perturbative corrections show tension with experimental data.

Potential resolutions to discrepancies are discussed.

Abstract

Recent Bayesian analyses of heavy ion collision data have established a non-trivial temperature dependence of the shear and bulk viscosity per entropy. Motivated by this, we consider higher derivative corrections to realistic, bottom-up holographic models of quark-gluon plasma based on five-dimensional Einstein-dilaton theories and determine the dilaton potentials in the higher derivative terms by matching the Bayesian analyses. A byproduct of our analysis is the bulk viscosity that follows from the holographic V-QCD theory. Higher derivative corrections when treated perturbatively lead to tension with existing data. We investigate possible resolutions.