title: Holographic lattices give the graviton an effective mass.
abstract: We discuss the dc conductivity of holographic theories with translational invariance broken by a background lattice. We show that the presence of the lattice induces an effective mass for the graviton via a gravitational version of the Higgs mechanism. This allows us to obtain, at leading order in the lattice strength, an analytic expression for the dc conductivity in terms of the size of the lattice at the horizon. In locally critical theories this leads to a power law resistivity that is in agreement with an earlier field theory analysis of Hartnoll and Hofman.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Theory Group, Physics Department, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vegh