Holographic Hall conductivities from dyonic backgrounds

Abstract

We develop a general framework for computing the holographic 2-point functions and the corresponding conductivities in asymptotically locally AdS backgrounds with an electric charge density, a constant magentic field, and possibly non-trivial scalar profiles, for a broad class of Einstein-Maxwell-Axion-Dilaton theories, including certain Chern-Simons terms. Holographic renormalization is carried out for any theory in this class and the computation of the renormalized AC conductivities at zero spatial momentum is reduced to solving a single decoupled first order Riccati equation. Moreover, we develop a first order fake supergravity formulalism for dyonic renormalization group flows in four dimensions, allowing us to construct analytically infinite families of such backgrounds by specifying a superpotential at will. These RG flows interpolate between AdS$_4$ in the UV and a hyperscaling violating Lifshitz geometry in the IR with exponents $1<z<3$ and $\theta=z+1$. For $1<z<2$ the spectrum of fluctuations is gapped and discrete. Our hope and intention is that this analysis can serve as a manual for computing the holographic 1- and 2-point functions and the corresponding transport coefficients in any dyonic background, both in the context of AdS/CMT and AdS/QCD.