Holographic lattices give the graviton an effective mass

We discuss the dc conductivity of holographic theories with translational invariance broken by a background lattice. We show that the presence of the lattice induces an effective mass for the graviton via a gravitational version of the Higgs mechanism. This allows us to obtain, at leading order in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 112; no. 7; p. 071602
Main Authors Blake, Mike, Tong, David, Vegh, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 20.02.2014
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Summary:We discuss the dc conductivity of holographic theories with translational invariance broken by a background lattice. We show that the presence of the lattice induces an effective mass for the graviton via a gravitational version of the Higgs mechanism. This allows us to obtain, at leading order in the lattice strength, an analytic expression for the dc conductivity in terms of the size of the lattice at the horizon. In locally critical theories this leads to a power law resistivity that is in agreement with an earlier field theory analysis of Hartnoll and Hofman.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.112.071602