A general class of holographic superconductors

TL;DR

This paper generalizes holographic superconductor models using the Stueckelberg mechanism, enabling control over phase transition types and revealing complex conductivity features, with implications for understanding condensed matter phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a Stueckelberg-based generalization of holographic superconductors, allowing tuning of phase transition order and detailed analysis of their thermodynamic and conductive properties.

Findings

Identification of first and second order phase transitions.

Metastable phases above critical temperature in first order transitions.

Additional poles in conductivity indicating internal structure.

Abstract

We introduce a simple generalization of the basic holographic superconductor model in which the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1) symmetry occurs via the Stueckelberg mechanism. This more general setting allows tuning features such as the order of the transition. The physical vacuum of the condensed phase and the order of the transition are determined by a detailed analysis of the free energy of the system. For first order transitions, we identify a metastable phase above the critical temperature. In this case, the conductivity shows additional poles, thus suggesting that the condensate has internal structure. We comment on the possibility of obtaining second order phase transitions with non mean-field critical exponents.