Shear viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma in a kinetic theory approach

One of the main results of heavy ions collision (HIC) at relativistic energy experiments is the very small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio of the Quark-Gluon Plasma, close to the conjectured lower bound η/s=1/4π for systems in the infinite coupling limit. Transport coefficients like shear viscosity are responsible of non-equilibrium properties of a system: Green-Kubo relations give us an exact expression to compute these coefficients. We compute shear viscosity numerically using Green-Kubo relation in the framework of Kinetic Theory solving the relativistic transport Boltzmann equation in a finite box with periodic boundary conditions. We investigate a system of particles interacting via anisotropic and energy dependent cross-section in the range of temperature of interest for HIC. Green-Kubo results are in agreement with Chapman-Enskog approximation while Relaxation Time approximation can underestimates the viscosity of a factor 2. The correct analytic formula for shear viscosity can be used to develop a transport theory with a fixed η/s and have a comparison with physical observables like elliptic flow.