title: Dynamically generated Mott gap from holography.
abstract: In the fermionic sector of top-down approaches to holographic systems, one generically finds that the fermions are coupled to gravity and gauge fields in a variety of ways, beyond minimal coupling. In this Letter, we take one such interaction-a Pauli, or dipole, interaction-and study its effects on fermion correlators. We find that this interaction modifies the fermion spectral density in a remarkable way. As we change the strength of the interaction, we find that spectral weight is transferred between bands, and beyond a critical value, a gap emerges in the fermion density of states. A possible interpretation of this bulk interaction then is that it drives the dynamical formation of a (Mott) gap, in the absence of continuous symmetry breaking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Edalati
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Leigh
authors.forename: Philip W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Phillips