Critical phenomena in N=4 SYM plasma

Strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang Mills plasma at finite temperature and chemical potential for an R-symmetry charge undergoes a second order phase transition. We demonstrate that this phase transition is of the mean field theory type. We explicitly show that the model is in the dynamical universality class of 'model B' according to the classification of Hohenberg and Halperin, with dynamical critical exponent z = 4. We study bulk viscosity in the mass deformed version of this theory in the vicinity of the phase transition. We point out that all available models of bulk viscosity at continuous phase transition are in conflict with our explicit holographic computations. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.