Thermodynamics and bulk viscosity of approximate black hole duals to finite temperature quantum chromodynamics

We consider classes of translationally invariant black hole solutions whose equations of state closely resemble that of QCD at zero chemical potential. We use these backgrounds to compute the ratio zeta / s of bulk viscosity to entropy density. For a class of black holes that exhibits a first-order transition, we observe a sharp rise in zeta / s near T-c. For constructions that exhibit a smooth crossover, like QCD does, the rise in zeta / s is more modest. We conjecture that divergences in zeta / s for black hole horizons are related to extrema of the entropy density as a function of temperature.