Holographic charge density waves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that holographic models of strongly coupled matter can naturally develop charge density wave phases that break translational symmetry without violating time-reversal or parity, broadening understanding of spatially modulated states.

Contribution

It introduces holographic charge density wave phases within Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theories, including effects of additional vector fields, and discusses their potential as novel ground states.

Findings

Charge density waves can spontaneously form in holographic models.

Such phases preserve time-reversal and parity symmetry.

The work extends to models with multiple vector fields.

Abstract

We show that strongly coupled holographic matter at finite charge density can exhibit charge density wave phases which spontaneously break translation invariance while preserving time-reversal and parity invariance. We show that such phases are possible within Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory in general spacetime dimensions. We also discuss related spatially modulated phases when there is an additional coupling to a second vector field, possibly with non-zero mass. We discuss how these constructions, and others, should be associated with novel spatially modulated ground states.