There is a duality out of the framework of string theory that tells us, in certain cases, gravity can be thought of as emerging from the quantum mechanical degrees of freedom of a system. Remarkably, this relationship has not only given us a long sought after microscopic description of black holes and insights into the fabric of spacetime, but has also proven itself useful as a novel analytic toolset to investigate non-perturbative systems. Known as holography, this weak/strong coupling duality allows us to examine strongly coupled quantum systems by mapping them to perturbative, and thus tractable, gravitational theories. Holography has been used to investigate a multitude of strongly coupled quantum systems, including the quark-gluon plasma and high Tc superconductors. 

 

This talk will examine holographic models which describe a wide range of systems seen in nature with superconducting and/or striped orders, in which a U(1) symmetry and translational invariance may be broken. We will examine the interplay between spontaneous and explicit translational symmetry breaking through the transport properties of these systems, focusing in particular on the structure of the optical conductivity.