Viscosity bound violation in holographic solids and the viscoelastic response

We argue that the Kovtun-Son-Starinets (KSS) lower bound on the viscosity to entropy density ratio holds in fluid systems but is violated in solid materials with a nonzero shear elastic modulus. We construct explicit examples of this by applying the standard gauge/gravity duality methods to massive gravity and show that the KSS bound is clearly violated in black brane solutions whenever the massive gravity theories are of s o l i d type. We argue that the physical reason for the bound violation relies on the viscoelastic nature of the mechanical response in these materials. We speculate on whether any real-world materials can violate the bound and discuss a possible generalization of the bound that involves the ratio of the shear elastic modulus to the pressure.