Sound waves in strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theory plasma

Using gauge theory/gravity duality we study sound wave propagation in strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theory plasma, We compute the speed of sound and the bulk viscosity of N = 2* supersymmetric SU(N-C) Yang-Mills plasma at a temperature much larger than the mass scale of the theory in the limit of large N. and large 't Hooft coupling. The speed of sound is computed both from the equation of state and the hydrodynamic pole in the stress-energy tensor two-point correlation function. Both computations lead to the same result. Bulk viscosity is determined by computing the attenuation constant of the sound wave mode. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.