Membrane Paradigm and Holographic Hydrodynamics

We discuss recent work showing that in certain cases the membrane paradigm equations governing the dynamics of black hole horizons can be recast as relativistic conservation law equations. In the context of gauge/gravity dualities, these equations are interpreted as defining the viscous hydrodynamics of a holographically dual relativistic field theory. Using this approach, one can derive the viscous transport coefficients and the form of the entropy current for field theories dual to gravity plus matter fields.