arXiv subjects

Daniel K. Brattan

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel K. Brattan.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Magneto-thermal transport implies an incoherent Hall conductivity

We consider magnetohydrodynamics with an external magnetic field. We find that in general one must allow for a non-zero incoherent Hall conductivity to correctly describe the DC longitudinal and Hall thermal conductivities beyond order zero in the magnetic field expansion. We apply our result to the dyonic black hole, determining the incoherent Hall conductivity in that case, and additionally prove that the existence of this transport coefficient leads to a significantly better match between the hydrodynamic and AC thermo-electric correlators.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

A hydrodynamical description for magneto-transport in the strange metal phase of Bi-2201

High temperature superconductors are strongly coupled systems which present a complicated phase diagram with many coexisting phases. This makes it difficult to understand the mechanism which generates their singular transport properties. Hydrodynamics, which mostly relies on the symmetries of the system without referring to any specific microscopic mechanism, constitutes a promising framework to analyze these materials. In this paper we show that in the strange metal phase of the cuprates, a whole set of transport coefficients are described by a universal hydrodynamic framework once one accounts for the effects of quantum critical charge density waves. We corroborate our theoretical prediction by measuring the DC transport properties of Bi-2201 close to optimal doping, proving the validity of our approach. Our argument can be used as a consistency check to understand the universality class governing the behavior of high temperature cuprate superconductors.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

The curious behaviour of the scale invariant $(2+1)$-dimensional Lifshitz scalar

We demonstrate the existence of an exactly marginal deformation, with derivative coupling, about the free theory of a $(2+1)$-dimensional charged, Lifshitz scalar with dynamic critical exponent $z=4$ and particle-hole asymmetry. We show that the other classically scale invariant interactions (consistent with translational and rotational invariance) break the scale symmetry at the quantum level and find a trace identity for the stress-energy-momentum tensor complex. We conjecture the existence of bound states of $(N+1)$-particles, as a manifestation of broken scale invariance, when we turn on an attractive, classically scale invariant, polynomial interaction in charged, scalar Lifshitz field theories with dynamic critical exponent $z=2N$, $n \in \mathbb{N}$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

On the landscape of scale invariance in quantum mechanics

We consider the most general scale invariant radial Hamiltonian allowing for anisotropic scaling between space and time. We formulate a renormalisation group analysis of this system and demonstrate the existence of a quantum phase transition from a continuous scale invariant phase to a discrete scale invariant phase. Close to the critical point, the discrete scale invariant phase is characterised by an isolated, closed, attracting trajectory in renomalisation group space (a limit cycle). Moving in appropriate directions in the parameter space of couplings this picture is altered to one controlled by a quasi periodic attracting trajectory (a limit torus) or fixed points. We identify a direct relation between the critical point, the renormalisation group picture and the power laws characterising the zero energy wave functions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

$\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry and anisotropic scale invariance

We find a class of scale-anomaly-free $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric quantum systems with non-vanishing potential terms where space and time scale with distinct exponents. Our results generalise the known case of the supersymmetric inverse square potential to a larger class of scaling symmetries.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Scale anomaly of a Lifshitz scalar: a universal quantum phase transition to discrete scale invariance

We demonstrate the existence of a universal transition from a continuous scale invariant phase to a discrete scale invariant phase for a class of one-dimensional quantum systems with anisotropic scaling symmetry between space and time. These systems describe a Lifshitz scalar interacting with a background potential. The transition occurs at a critical coupling $λ_{c}$ corresponding to a strongly attractive potential.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Drag phenomena from holographic massive gravity

We consider the motion of point particles in a strongly coupled field theory with broken translation invariance. We obtain the energy and momentum loss rates and drag coefficients for a class of such particles by solving for the motion of classical strings in holographic massive gravity. At low temperatures compared to the graviton mass the behaviour of the string is controlled by the appearance of an exotic ground state with non-zero entropy at zero temperature. Additionally we find an upper bound on the diffusion constant for a collection of these particles which is saturated when the mass of the graviton goes to zero.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

A strongly coupled anyon material

We use alternative quantisation of the D3-D5 system to explore properties of a strongly coupled anyon material at finite density and temperature. We study the transport properties of the material and find both diffusion and massive holographic zero sound modes. By studying the anyon number conductivity we also find evidence for the anyonic analogue of the metal-insulator transition.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Holographic plasma and anyonic fluids

We use alternative quantisation of the $D3/D5$ system to explore properties of a strongly coupled charged plasma and strongly coupled anyonic fluids. The $S$-transform of the $D3/D5$ system is used as a model for charged matter interacting with a U(1) gauge field in the large coupling regime, and we compute the dispersion relationship of the propagating electromagnetic modes as the density and temperature are changed. A more general $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ transformation gives a strongly interacting anyonic fluid, and we study its transport properties as we change the statistics of the anyons and the background magnetic field.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Collective Excitations of Holographic Quantum Liquids in a Magnetic Field

We use holography to study N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory in the large-Nc and large-coupling limits coupled to a number Nf << Nc of (n+1)-dimensional massless supersymmetric hypermultiplets in the Nc representation of SU(Nc), with n=2,3. We introduce a temperature T, a baryon number chemical potential mu, and a baryon number magnetic field B, and work in a regime with mu >> T,\sqrt{B}. We study the collective excitations of these holographic quantum liquids by computing the poles in the retarded Green's function of the baryon number charge density operator and the associated peaks in the spectral function. We focus on the evolution of the collective excitations as we increase the frequency relative to T, i.e. the hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover. We find that for all B, at low frequencies the tallest peak in the spectral function is associated with hydrodynamic charge diffusion. At high frequencies the tallest peak is associated with a sound mode similar to the zero sound mode in the collisionless regime of a Landau Fermi liquid. The sound mode has a gap proportional to B, and as a result for intermediate frequencies and for B sufficiently large compared to T the spectral function is strongly suppressed. We find that the hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover occurs at a frequency that is approximately B-independent.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

CFT dual of the AdS Dirichlet problem: Fluid/Gravity on cut-off surfaces

We study the gravitational Dirichlet problem in AdS spacetimes with a view to understanding the boundary CFT interpretation. We define the problem as bulk Einstein's equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions on fixed timelike cut-off hypersurface. Using the fluid/gravity correspondence, we argue that one can determine non-linear solutions to this problem in the long wavelength regime. On the boundary we find a conformal fluid with Dirichlet constitutive relations, viz., the fluid propagates on a `dynamical' background metric which depends on the local fluid velocities and temperature. This boundary fluid can be re-expressed as an emergent hypersurface fluid which is non-conformal but has the same value of the shear viscosity as the boundary fluid. The hypersurface dynamics arises as a collective effect, wherein effects of the background are transmuted into the fluid degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this collective fluid is forced to be non-relativistic below a critical cut-off radius in AdS to avoid acausal sound propagation with respect to the hypersurface metric. We further go on to show how one can use this set-up to embed the recent constructions of flat spacetime duals to non-relativistic fluid dynamics into the AdS/CFT correspondence, arguing that a version of the membrane paradigm arises naturally when the boundary fluid lives on a background Galilean manifold.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Shear channel correlators from hot charged black holes

We compute numerically the full retarded Green's functions for conserved currents in the shear channel of a (2+1)-dimensional field theory at non-zero temperature and density. This theory is assumed to be holographically dual to a non-extremal, electric Reissner-Nordstr\om AdS4 black hole with planar horizon. Using the holographic description we obtain results for arbitrary frequencies and momenta and survey the detailed structure of these correlators. In particular, we demonstrate the `repulsion' and `clover-leaf crossing' of their poles and stress the importance of the residues at the poles beyond the hydrodynamic regime. As a consistency check, we show that our results agree precisely with existing literature for the appropriate quasinormal frequencies of the bulk theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Charged, conformal non-relativistic hydrodynamics

We embed a holographic model of an U(1) charged fluid with Galilean invariance in string theory and calculate its specific heat capacity and Prandtl number. Such theories are generated by a R-symmetry twist along a null direction of a N=1 superconformal theory. We study the hydrodynamic properties of such systems employing ideas from the fluid-gravity correspondence.

hep-th↗