Incoherent transport for phases that spontaneously break translations

Abstract

We consider phases of matter at finite charge density which spontaneously break spatial translations. Without taking a hydrodynamic limit we identify a boost invariant incoherent current operator. We also derive expressions for the small frequency behaviour of the thermoelectric conductivities generalising those that have been derived in a translationally invariant context. Within holographic constructions we show that the DC conductivity for the incoherent current can be obtained from a solution to a Stokes flow for an auxiliary fluid on the black hole horizon combined with specific thermodynamic quantities associated with the equilibrium black hole solutions.