arXiv subjects

Tom Griffin

Publications and source records attributed to Tom Griffin.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Incoherent transport for phases that spontaneously break translations

We consider phases of matter at finite charge density which spontaneously break spatial translations. Without taking a hydrodynamic limit we identify a boost invariant incoherent current operator. We also derive expressions for the small frequency behaviour of the thermoelectric conductivities generalising those that have been derived in a translationally invariant context. Within holographic constructions we show that the DC conductivity for the incoherent current can be obtained from a solution to a Stokes flow for an auxiliary fluid on the black hole horizon combined with specific thermodynamic quantities associated with the equilibrium black hole solutions.

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arXiv2017

Holographic DC conductivity and Onsager relations

Within holography the DC conductivity can be obtained by solving a system of Stokes equations for an auxiliary fluid living on the black hole horizon. We show that these equations can be derived from a novel variational principle involving a functional that depends on the fluid variables of interest as well as the time reversed quantities. This leads to simple derivation of the Onsager relations for the conductivity. We also obtain the relevant Stokes equations for bulk theories of gravity in four dimensions including a $\vartheta F\wedge F$ term in the Lagrangian, where $\vartheta$ is a function of dynamical scalar fields. We discuss various realisations of the anomalous Hall conductivity that this term induces and also solve the Stokes equations for holographic lattices which break translations in one spatial dimension.

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arXiv2017

Quantization of Horava Gravity in 2+1 Dimensions

We study quantum corrections to projectable Horava gravity with $z = 2$ scaling in 2+1 dimensions. Using the background field method, we utilize a non-singular gauge to compute the anomalous dimension of the cosmological constant at one loop, in a normalization adapted to the spatial curvature term.

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arXiv2017

DC Conductivity and Higher Derivative Gravity

For Gauss-Bonnet gravity and in the context of holography we show how the thermal DC conductivity can be obtained by solving a generalised system of Stokes equations for an auxiliary fluid on a curved black hole horizon. For more general higher derivative theories of gravity coupled to gauge-fields, we also analyse the linearised thermal and electric currents that are produced by DC thermal and electric sources. We show how suitably defined DC transport current fluxes of the dual field theory are given by current fluxes defined at the black horizon.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Holographic thermal DC response in the hydrodynamic limit

We consider black hole solutions of Einstein gravity that describe deformations of CFTs at finite temperature in which spatial translations have been broken explicitly. We focus on deformations that are periodic in the non-compact spatial directions, which effectively corresponds to considering the CFT on a spatial torus with a non-trivial metric. We apply a DC thermal gradient and show that in a hydrodynamic limit the linearised, local thermal currents can be determined by solving linearised, forced Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid on the torus. We also show how sub-leading corrections to the thermal current can be calculated as well as showing how the full stress tensor response that is generated by the DC source can be obtained. We also compare our results with the fluid-gravity approach.

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arXiv2017

Thermal backflow in CFTs

We study the thermal transport properties of general conformal field theories (CFTs) on curved spacetimes in the leading order viscous hydrodynamic limit. At the level of linear response, we show that the thermal transport is governed by a system of forced linearised Navier-Stokes equations on a curved space. Our setup includes CFTs in flat spacetime that have been deformed by spatially dependent and periodic local temperature variations or strains that have been applied to the CFT, and hence is relevant to CFTs arising in condensed matter systems at zero charge density. We provide specific examples of deformations which lead to thermal backflow driven by a DC source: that is, the thermal currents locally flow in the opposite direction to the applied DC thermal source. We also consider thermal transport for relativistic quantum field theories that are not conformally invariant.

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arXiv2016

DC Conductivity of Magnetised Holographic Matter

We consider general black hole solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory that are holographically dual to conformal field theories at finite charge density with non-vanishing magnetic fields and local magnetisation currents, which generically break translation invariance explicitly. We show that the thermoelectric DC conductivity of the field theory can be obtained by solving a system of generalised Stokes equations on the black hole horizon. For various examples, including Q-lattices and one-dimensional lattices, we solve the Stokes equations explicitly and obtain expressions for the DC conductivity in terms of the solution at the black hole horizon.

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arXiv2015

Scalar Field Theories with Polynomial Shift Symmetries

We continue our study of naturalness in nonrelativistic QFTs of the Lifshitz type, focusing on scalar fields that can play the role of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) modes associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Such systems allow for an extension of the constant shift symmetry to a shift by a polynomial of degree $P$ in spatial coordinates. These "polynomial shift symmetries" in turn protect the technical naturalness of modes with a higher-order dispersion relation, and lead to a refinement of the proposed classification of infrared Gaussian fixed points available to describe NG modes in nonrelativistic theories. Generic interactions in such theories break the polynomial shift symmetry explicitly to the constant shift. It is thus natural to ask: Given a Gaussian fixed point with polynomial shift symmetry of degree $P$, what are the lowest-dimension operators that preserve this symmetry, and deform the theory into a self-interacting scalar field theory with the shift symmetry of degree $P$? To answer this (essentially cohomological) question, we develop a new graph-theoretical technique, and use it to prove several classification theorems. First, in the special case of $P=1$ (essentially equivalent to Galileons), we reproduce the known Galileon $N$-point invariants, and find their novel interpretation in terms of graph theory, as an equal-weight sum over all labeled trees with $N$ vertices. Then we extend the classification to $P>1$ and find a whole host of new invariants, including those that represent the most relevant (or least irrelevant) deformations of the corresponding Gaussian fixed points, and we study their uniqueness.

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arXiv2015

Cascading Multicriticality in Nonrelativistic Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

Without Lorentz invariance, spontaneous global symmetry breaking can lead to multicritical Nambu-Goldstone modes with a higher-order low-energy dispersion $ω\sim k^n$ ($n=2,3,\ldots$), whose naturalness is protected by polynomial shift symmetries. Here we investigate the role of infrared divergences and the nonrelativistic generalization of the Coleman-Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner (CHMW) theorem. We find novel cascading phenomena with large hierarchies between the scales at which the value of $n$ changes, leading to an evasion of the "no-go" consequences of the relativistic CHMW theorem.

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arXiv2013

Multicritical Symmetry Breaking and Naturalness of Slow Nambu-Goldstone Bosons

We investigate spontaneous global symmetry breaking in the absence of Lorentz invariance, and study technical Naturalness of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) modes whose dispersion relation exhibits a hierarchy of multicritical phenomena with Lifshitz scaling and dynamical exponents $z>1$. For example, we find NG modes with a technically natural quadratic dispersion relation which do not break time reversal symmetry and are associated with a single broken symmetry generator, not a pair. The mechanism is protected by an enhanced `polynomial shift' symmetry in the free-field limit.

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arXiv2012

Lifshitz Gravity for Lifshitz Holography

We argue that Horava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity provides the minimal holographic dual for Lifshitz-type field theories with anisotropic scaling and dynamical exponent z. First we show that Lifshitz spacetimes are vacuum solutions of HL gravity, without need for additional matter. Then we perform holographic renormalization of HL gravity, and show how it reproduces the full structure of the z=2 anisotropic Weyl anomaly in dual field theories in 2+1 dimensions, while its minimal relativistic gravity counterpart yields only one of two independent central charges in the anomaly.

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arXiv2012

Conformal Lifshitz Gravity from Holography

We show that holographic renormalization of relativistic gravity in asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes naturally reproduces the structure of gravity with anisotropic scaling: The holographic counterterms induced near anisotropic infinity take the form of the action for gravity at a Lifshitz point, with the appropriate value of the dynamical critical exponent $z$. In the particular case of 3+1 bulk dimensions and $z=2$ asymptotic scaling near infinity, we find a logarithmic counterterm, related to anisotropic Weyl anomaly of the dual CFT, and show that this counterterm reproduces precisely the action of conformal gravity at a $z=2$ Lifshitz point in 2+1 dimensions, which enjoys anisotropic local Weyl invariance and satisfies the detailed balance condition. We explain how the detailed balance is a consequence of relations among holographic counterterms, and point out that a similar relation holds in the relativistic case of holography in $AdS_5$. Upon analytic continuation, analogous to the relativistic case studied recently by Maldacena, the action of conformal gravity at the $z=2$ Lifshitz point features in the ground-state wavefunction of a gravitational system with an interesting type of spatial anisotropy.

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arXiv2009

Spin lattices with two-body Hamiltonians for which the ground state encodes a cluster state

We present a general procedure for constructing lattices of qubits with a Hamiltonian composed of nearest-neighbour two-body interactions such that the ground state encodes a cluster state. We give specific details for lattices in one-, two-, and three-dimensions, investigating both periodic and fixed boundary conditions, as well as present a proof for the applicability of this procedure to any graph. We determine the energy gap of these systems, which is shown to be independent of the size of the lattice but dependent on the type of lattice (in particular, the coordination number), and investigate the scaling of this gap in terms of the coupling constants of the Hamiltonian. We provide a comparative analysis of the different lattice types with respect to their usefulness for measurement-based quantum computation.

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