High-Tc cuprate strange metals are characterized by a DC resistivity that scales linearly with T from the onset of superconductivity to the crystal melting temperature, characterized by a current... Show moreHigh-Tc cuprate strange metals are characterized by a DC resistivity that scales linearly with T from the onset of superconductivity to the crystal melting temperature, characterized by a current life time τℏ≃ℏ/(kBT), the “Planckian dissipation”. At the same time, the optical conductivity ceases to be of the Drude form at high temperatures, suggesting a change of the underlying dynamics that surprisingly leaves the T-linear DC resistivity unaffected. We use the AdS/CFT correspondence that describes strongly coupled, densely many-body entangled metallic states of matter to study the DC thermoelectrical transport properties and the optical conductivities of the local quantum critical Gubser-Rocha holographic strange metal in 2+1 dimensions in the presence of a lattice potential, a prime candidate to compare with experiment. We find that the electrical DC resistivity is linear in T at low temperatures for a large range of potential strengths and wave vectors, even as it transitions between different dissipative regimes. At weak lattice potential the optical conductivity evolves as a function of increasing temperature from a Drude form to a “bad metal” characterized by a mid-IR resonance without changing the DC transport, similar to that seen in cuprate strange metals. This mid-IR peak and notably its temperature evolution can be fully understood as a consequence of umklapp hydrodynamics: i.e., hydrodynamic perturbations are Bloch modes in the presence of a lattice. At strong lattice potential an “incoherent metal” is realized instead where momentum conservation no longer plays a role in the transport. We confirm that in this regime the thermal diffusivity appears to be insensitive to the breaking of translations and can be explained by Planckian dissipation originating in universal microscopic chaos. A similar behavior has been found for holographic metals with strong homogeneous momentum relaxation. The charge diffusivity does not submit to this chaos explanation, even though the continuing linear-in-T DC resistivity saturates to an apparent universal slope, numerically equal to a Planckian rate. Show less
In this thesis, we have used numerical approaches to study the effects of translational symmetry breaking on strange metallic systems as realised by the holographic duality. This involves solving... Show moreIn this thesis, we have used numerical approaches to study the effects of translational symmetry breaking on strange metallic systems as realised by the holographic duality. This involves solving for large-scale coupled partial differential equations, describing the physics of corrugated black holes in negatively curved space-times.We show that the strong-coupling nature of the physics of these holographic systems produces some unique behaviours, which are suggestively close to experimental observations that have been done in the lab. We speculate that strong-coupling physics is what is at the heart of the mysteries that shroud the strange metal. Show less
We address a subject that could have been analyzed century ago: how does the universe of general relativity look like when it would have been filled with solid matter? Solids break spontaneously... Show moreWe address a subject that could have been analyzed century ago: how does the universe of general relativity look like when it would have been filled with solid matter? Solids break spontaneously the translations and rotations of space itself. Only rather recently it was realized in various context that the order parameter of the solid has a relation to Einsteins dynamical space time which is similar to the role of a Higgs field in a Yang-Mills gauge theory. Such a "crystal gravity" is therefore like the Higgs phase of gravity. The usual Higgs phases are characterized by a special phenomenology. A case in point is superconductivity exhibiting phenomena like the Type II phase, characterized by the emergence of an Abrikosov lattice of quantized magnetic fluxes absorbing the external magnetic field. What to expect in the gravitational setting? The theory of elasticity is the universal effective field theory associated with the breaking of space translations and rotations having a similar status as the phase action describing a neutral superfluid. A geometrical formulation appeared in its long history, similar in structure to general relativity, which greatly facilitates the marriage of both theories. With as main limita-tion that we focus entirely on stationary circumstances - the dynamical theory is greatly complicated by the lack of Lorentz invariance - we will present a first exploration of a remarkably rich and often simple physics of "Higgsed gravity". Show less
We study the fermionic spectral density in a strongly correlated quantum system described by a gravity dual. In the presence of periodically modulated chemical potential, which models the effect of... Show moreWe study the fermionic spectral density in a strongly correlated quantum system described by a gravity dual. In the presence of periodically modulated chemical potential, which models the effect of the ionic lattice, we explore the shapes of the corresponding Fermi surfaces, defined by the location of peaks in the spectral density at the Fermi level. We find that at strong lattice potentials sectors of the Fermi surface are unexpectedly destroyed and the Fermi surface becomes an arc-like disconnected manifold. We explain this phenomenon in terms of a collision of the Fermi surface pole with zeros of the fermionic Green’s function, which are explicitly computable in the holographic dual. Show less
We study the fermionic spectral density in a strongly correlated quantum system described by a gravity dual. In the presence of periodically modulated chemical potential, which models the effect of... Show moreWe study the fermionic spectral density in a strongly correlated quantum system described by a gravity dual. In the presence of periodically modulated chemical potential, which models the effect of the ionic lattice, we explore the shapes of the corresponding Fermi surfaces, defined by the location of peaks in the spectral density at the Fermi level. We find that at strong lattice potentials sectors of the Fermi surface are unexpectedly destroyed and the Fermi surface becomes an arc-like disconnected manifold. We explain this phenomenon in terms of a collision of the Fermi surface pole with zeros of the fermionic Green’s function, which are explicitly computable in the holographic dual. Show less
