Hyperscaling violation, quasinormal modes and shear diffusion

Abstract

We study quasinormal modes of shear gravitational perturbations for hyperscaling violating Lifshitz theories, with Lifshitz and hyperscaling violating exponents $z$ and $θ$. The lowest quasinormal mode frequency yields a shear diffusion constant which is in agreement with that obtained in previous work by other methods. In particular for theories with $z< d_i+2-θ$ where $d_i$ is the boundary spatial dimension, the shear diffusion constant exhibits power-law scaling with temperature, while for $z=d_i+2-θ$, it exhibits logarithmic scaling. We then calculate certain 2-point functions of the dual energy-momentum tensor holographically for $z\leq d_i+2-θ$, identifying the diffusive poles with the quasinormal modes above. This reveals universal behaviour $η/s=1/4π$ for the viscosity-to-entropy-density ratio for all $z\leq d_i+2-θ$.

v2: Latex, 21pgs, more details of analysis, review of shear diffusion from membrane paradigm, references added, matches version to be published