Minimal Holographic Superconductors from Maximal Supergravity

TL;DR

This paper constructs a minimal holographic superconductor model within maximal supergravity, analyzing phase transitions and zero-temperature ground states through various flow solutions at different temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a new minimal supergravity-based holographic superconductor model with detailed phase transition analysis and zero-temperature solutions.

Findings

Superconducting solutions are thermodynamically preferred below a critical temperature.

Phase transition can be either first or second order depending on boundary conditions.

Zero-temperature flow interpolates between two stable AdS_4 vacua.

Abstract

We study a truncation of four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravity that provides a realization of the minimal model of a holographic superconductor. We find various flow solutions in this truncation at zero and finite temperature with a non-trivial profile for the charged scalar. Below a critical temperature we find holographic superconductor solutions that represent the thermodynamically preferred phase. Depending on the choice of boundary conditions, the superconducting phase transition is either first or second order. For vanishing temperature we find a flow with a condensing charged scalar that interpolates between two perturbatively stable AdS_4 vacua and is the zero-temperature ground state of the holographic superconductor.