Bulk viscosity of N=2*plasma

We use gauge theory/string theory correspondence to study bulk viscosity of strongly coupled mass deformed SU(N-c) N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma, also known as N = 2* gauge theory. For a wide range of masses we confirm the bulk viscosity bound proposed in [A. Buchel, Phys. Lett. B 663 (2008) 286, arXiv:0708.3459 [hep-th]]. For certain choice of masses, the theory undergoes a phase transition with divergent specific heat c(V) similar to |1 - T-c/T|(-1/2). We show that, although bulk viscosity rapidly grows as T -> T-c, it remains finite in the vicinity of the critical point. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.