Deconstructing holographic liquids

Abstract

We argue that there exist simple effective field theories describing the long-distance dynamics of holographic liquids. The degrees of freedom responsible for the transport of charge and energy-momentum are Goldstone modes. These modes are coupled to a strongly coupled infrared sector through emergent gauge and gravitational fields. The IR degrees of freedom are described holographically by the near-horizon part of the metric, while the Goldstone bosons are described by a field-theoretical Lagrangian. In the cases where the holographic dual involves a black hole, this picture allows for a direct connection between the holographic prescription where currents live on the boundary, and the membrane paradigm where currents live on the horizon. The zero-temperature sound mode in the D3-D7 system is also re-analyzed and re-interpreted within this formalism.

21 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (6)

• "Deconfined" quantum critical points
• Universality of the hydrodynamic limit in AdS/CFT and the membrane paradigm
• The gravity dual to a quantum critical point with spontaneous symmetry breaking
• Zero Sound from Holography
• Shear Modes, Criticality and Extremal Black Holes
• Comments on Fermi Liquid from Holography