Holographic striped superconductor

Abstract

We construct a holographic model describing the striped superconductor (SSC), which is characterized by the presence of pair density waves (PDW). We explicitly demonstrate that the SSC phase is implemented as the intertwined phase of charge density waves (CDW) order and uniform superconducting (SC) order. The interplay of PDW order, CDW order as well as the uniform SC order in SSC phase is studied. It is found that the PDW order is prominent when both CDW order and uniform SC order are balanced. The critical temperature of CDW becomes higher in the presence of the uniform SC order, but its charge density amplitude is suppressed. On the other hand, the SC order is not sensitive to the presence of CDW order. We also demonstrate that among all the possible solutions, the black hole in SSC phase has the lowest free energy and thus is thermodynamically favored.