Dr. Itzhak Fouxon 
Tel Aviv University

Date: Nov. 30, 2008

Title: From hydrodynamics to gravity and back

Abstract:

Hydrodynamics can be said to be as old as it is ill-understood.
Despite hundreds of years of studies the structure of the absolute
majority of fluid flows in nature remains unknown. It is likely that
the very language we use to describe fluids is not suitable for making
progress. In this talk we will discuss an intriguing connection
between hydrodynamics and gravity that has emerged recently thanks to
the AdS/CFT correspondence. It will be shown that the motion of
ordinary fluids allows a description in terms of the dynamics of a
certain spacetime, though the minimal formulation is still ahead of
us. We will see how hydrodynamics can help understand gravity. We will
also address another subject at the interplay of fluids and gravity -
the entropy and viscosity bounds.