Holographic Polarons, the Metal-Insulator Transition and Massive Gravity

Abstract

Massive gravity is holographically dual to `realistic' materials with momentum relaxation. The dual graviton potential encodes the phonon dynamics and it allows for a much broader diversity than considered so far. We construct a simple family of isotropic and homogeneous materials that exhibit an interaction-driven Metal-Insulator transition. The transition is triggered by the formation of polarons -- phonon-electron quasi-bound states that dominate the conductivities, shifting the spectral weight above a mass gap. We characterize the polaron gap, width and dispersion.