Competition/Enhancement of Two Probe Order Parameters in the Unbalanced Holographic Superconductor

We introduce and study a simple unbalanced holographic superconductor model with two scalar order parameters. The attention is focused on the possibility of coexisting orderings corresponding to the concomitant condensation of two scalar operators. Through a probe analysis we show that an attractive or repulsive direct interaction between the two bulk scalars leads respectively to competition and enhancement of the associated condensates. The system at hand is a toy model for studying generic multiple ordering in a strongly coupled context and some comments are given about its applicability to the ferromagnetic unconventional superconductors.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Minimal Model for an Unbalanced Holographic Superconductor

We describe the simplest holographic model for an s-wave unbalanced superconductor in 2+1 dimensions. We study its phase diagram and linear response features with particular attention to the possibility of spatially modulated phases (LOFF) and mixed spin-electric properties. The normal phase of the model at hand allows us to analyze a strong-coupling generalization of Mott two-current model for spintronic systems; the superconducting phase features an interesting DC spin-superconductivity without spin-symmetry breaking .Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, Proceedings of the Corfu Summer Institute 2012 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", September 8-27, 2012, Corfu, Greec

Simplest phonons and pseudo-phonons in field theory

We study the emergence of Nambu-Goldstone modes due to broken translation symmetry in field theory. Purely spontaneous breaking yields a massless phonon which develops a mass upon introducing a perturbative explicit breaking. The pseudo-phonon mass agrees with Gell Mann-Oakes-Renner relations. We analyze the simplest possible theories featuring gradient Mexican hats and describing space-dependent order parameters. We comment on homogeneous translation breaking and the connections with holographic Q-lattices.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure; (v3 extended analysis, typo fixed

Magneto-transport from momentum dissipating holography

We obtain explicit expressions for the thermoelectric transport coefficients of a strongly coupled, planar medium in the presence of an orthogonal magnetic field and momentum-dissipating processes. The computations are performed within the gauge/gravity framework where the momentum dissipation mechanism is introduced by including a mass term for the bulk graviton. Relying on the structure of the computed transport coefficients and promoting the parameters to become dynamical functions, we propose a holography inspired phenomenology open to a direct comparison with experimental data from the cuprates.Comment: 23 page

Electromagnetic response of strongly coupled plasmas

We present a thorough analysis of the electromagnetic response of strongly coupled neutral plasmas described by the gauge/gravity correspondence. The coupling of the external electromagnetic field with the tower of quasi-normal modes of the plasmas supports the presence of various electromagnetic modes with different properties. Among them we underline the existence of negative refraction with low dissipation for a transverse non-hydrodynamical mode. Previous hydrodynamical approaches have shown the ubiquitous character of negative refraction in charged plasmas and the absence thereof in neutral plasmas. Our results here extend the analysis for neutral plasmas beyond the hydrodynamical regime. As an application of these new insights we briefly discuss the case of the quark gluon plasma in the temperature dominated regime.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figure

Chasing the cuprates with dilatonic dyons

Magnetic field and momentum dissipation are key ingredients in describing condensed matter systems. We include them in gauge/gravity and systematically explore the bottom-up panorama of holographic IR effective field theories based on bulk Einstein-Maxwell Lagrangians plus scalars. The class of solutions here examined appear insufficient to capture the phenomenology of charge transport in the cuprates. We analyze in particular the temperature scaling of the resistivity and of the Hall angle. Keeping an open attitude, we illustrate weak and strong points of the approach.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures, Version to appear in JHE