Minimal quantum viscosity from fundamental physical constants.

Abstract

Viscosity of fluids is strongly system dependent, varies across many orders of magnitude, and depends on molecular interactions and structure in a complex way not amenable to first-principles theories. Despite the variations and theoretical difficulties, we find a new quantity setting the minimal kinematic viscosity of fluids: , where me and m are electron and molecule masses. We subsequently introduce a new property, the "elementary" viscosity ι with the lower bound set by fundamental physical constants and notably involving the proton-to-electron mass ratio: , where mp is the proton mass. We discuss the connection of our result to the bound found by Kovtun, Son, and Starinets in strongly interacting field theories.