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Magnetic response in the holographic insulator/superconductor transition

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Abstract

We study the magnetic response of holographic superconductors exhibiting an insulating ‘normal’ phase. These materials can be realized as a CFT compactified on a circle, which is dual to the AdS Soliton geometry. We study the response under i) magnetic fields and ii) a Wilson line on the circle. Magnetic fields lead to formation of vortices and allows one to infer that the superconductor is of type II. The response to a Wilson line is in the form of Aharonov-Bohm-like effects. These are suppressed in the holographic conductor/superconductor transition but, instead, they are unsuppressed for the insulator case. Holography, thus, predicts that generically insulators display stronger Aharonov-Bohm effects than conductors. In the fluid-mechanical limit the AdS Soliton is interpreted as a supersolid. Our results imply that supersolids display unsuppressed Aharonov-Bohm (or ‘Sagnac’) effects — stronger than in superfluids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Física and IFAE, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

    Marc Montull, Oriol Pujolàs, Alberto Salvio & Pedro J. Silva

  2. Scuola Normale Superiore and INFN, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Alberto Salvio

  3. Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (CSIC) and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC/CSIC), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

    Pedro J. Silva

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  1. Marc Montull
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Correspondence to Alberto Salvio.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1202.0006

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Montull, M., Pujolàs, O., Salvio, A. et al. Magnetic response in the holographic insulator/superconductor transition. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 135 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2012)135

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