Paper detail

Holographic charge density waves

We show that strongly coupled holographic matter at finite charge density can exhibit charge density wave phases which spontaneously break translation invariance while preserving time-reversal and parity invariance. We show that such phases are possible within Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory in general spacetime dimensions. We also discuss related spatially modulated phases when there is an additional coupling to a second vector field, possibly with non-zero mass. We discuss how these constructions, and others, should be associated with novel spatially modulated ground states.