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Competing Holographic Orders

We model competition between different macroscopic orders in an holographic context. The orders we considered are a superconducting order, modeled by a charged scalar field, and a magnetic order modeled by a neutral scalar field. We also discuss the case of two competing scalars coupled to a single gauge field. In all cases discussed here the phases tend to compete, rather than enhance each other. The condensation of one scalar hinders any further instabilities, unless we have a sufficiently strong repulsive interactions between the bulk scalars. We provide both analytic arguments and numerical demonstration of this fact. Based on the cases discussed here, we conjecture that holographic orders tend to compete for attractive bulk interactions, including gravity, and to cooperate, or be mutually enhancing, for repulsive bulk interactions between the corresponding order parameters.