Holographic Charge Density Waves

TL;DR

This paper presents a holographic model of charge density waves using gravity duals, revealing phase transitions and dynamic responses that resemble condensed matter systems, advancing understanding of strongly coupled phenomena.

Contribution

Introduces a gravity dual model for charge density waves with numerical solutions showing phase transitions and dynamical responses, bridging holography and condensed matter physics.

Findings

Identifies a phase transition below a critical temperature.

Demonstrates modulated solutions representing charge density waves.

Shows the system's response to external electric fields resembles condensed matter charge density waves.

Abstract

We discuss a gravity dual of a charge density wave consisting of a U(1) gauge field and two scalar fields in the background of an AdS$_4$ Schwarzschild black hole together with an antisymmetric field (probe limit). Interactions drive the system to a phase transition below a critical temperature. We numerically compute the ground states characterized by modulated solutions for the gauge potential corresponding to a dynamically generated unidirectional charge density wave in the conformal field theory. Signatures of the holographic density waves are retrieved by studying the dynamical response to an external electric field. We find that this novel holographic state shares many common features with the standard condensed matter version of charge density wave systems.