Gravitation,thermodynamics, and the bound on viscosity

The anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence implies that small perturbations of a black hole correspond to small deviations from thermodynamic equilibrium in a dual field theory. For gauge theories with an Einstein gravity dual, the AdS/CFT correspondence predicts a universal value for the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density, η/s = 1/4π. It was conjectured recently that all fluids conform to the lower bound η/s ≥ 1/4π. This conjectured bound has been the focus of much recent attention. However, despite the flurry of research in this field we still lack a proof for the general validity of the bound. In this essay we show that this mysterious bound is actually a direct outcome of the interplay between gravity, quantum theory, and thermodynamics.