Conductivity bounds in probe brane models

Abstract

We discuss upper and lower bounds on the electrical conductivity of finite temperature strongly coupled quantum field theories, holographically dual to probe brane models, within linear response. In a probe limit where disorder is introduced entirely through an inhomogeneous background charge density, we find simple lower and upper bounds on the electrical conductivity in arbitrary dimensions. In field theories in two spatial dimensions, we show that both bounds persist even when disorder is included in the bulk metric. We discuss the challenges with finding sharp lower bounds on conductivity in three or more spatial dimensions when the metric is inhomogeneous.