Screening of Coulomb interactions in holography

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2019; no. 4; pp. 1 - 37
• Main Authors: Mauri, E., Stoof, H. T. C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2019; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: AdS-CFT Correspondence; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Deformation; Density; Elementary Particles; Graphene; High energy physics; High temperature superconductors; Holography; Holography and condensed matter physics (AdS/CMT); Metalloids; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasmons; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; String Theory; AdS-CFT Correspondence; Holography and condensed matter physics (AdS/CMT)
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2019)035

A bstract We introduce Coulomb interactions in the holographic description of strongly interacting systems by performing a (current-current) double-trace deformation of the boundary theory. In the theory dual to a Reissner-Nordström background, this deformation leads to gapped plasmon modes in the density-density response, as expected from conventional RPA calculations. We further show that by introducing a ( d + 1)-dimensional Coulomb interaction in a boundary theory in d spacetime dimensions, we recover plasmon modes whose dispersion is proportional to k , as observed for example in graphene layers. Moreover, motivated by recent experimental results in layered cuprate high-temperature superconductors, we present a toy model for a layered system consisting of an infinite stack of (spatially) two-dimensional layers that are coupled only by the long-range Coulomb interaction. This leads to low-energy ‘acoustic plasmons’. Finally, we compute the optical conductivity of the deformed theory in d = 3 + 1, where a logarithmic correction is present, and we show how this can be related to the conductivity measured in Dirac and Weyl semimetals.