Holographic interaction effects on transport in Dirac semimetals

Abstract

Strongly interacting Dirac semimetals are investigated using a holographic model especially geared to compute the single-particle correlation function for this case, including both interaction effects and nonzero temperature. We calculate the (homogeneous) electrical conductivity at zero chemical potential, and show that it consists of two contributions. The interband contribution scales as a power law either in frequency or in temperature for low frequency. The precise power is related to a critical exponent of the dual holographic theory, which is a parameter in the model. On top of that we find for nonzero temperatures a Drude peak corresponding to intraband transitions. A behavior similar to Coulomb interactions is recovered as a special limiting case.