Slow relaxation and diffusion in holographic quantum critical phases

Abstract

The dissipative dynamics of strongly interacting systems are often characterised by the timescale set by the inverse temperature $\tau_P\sim\hbar/(k_BT)$. We show that near a class of strongly interacting quantum critical points that arise in the infra-red limit of translationally invariant holographic theories, there is a collective excitation (a quasinormal mode of the dual black hole spacetime) whose lifetime $\tau_{eq}$ is parametrically longer than $\tau_P$: $\tau_{eq}\gg T^{-1}$. The lifetime is enhanced due to its dependence on a dangerously irrelevant coupling that breaks the particle-hole symmetry and the invariance under Lorentz boosts of the quantum critical point. The thermal diffusivity (in units of the butterfly velocity) is anomalously large near the quantum critical point and is governed by $\tau_{eq}$ rather than $\tau_P$. We conjecture that there exists a long-lived, propagating collective mode with velocity $v_s$, and in this case the relation $D=v_s^2\tau_{eq}$ holds exactly in the limit $T\tau_{eq}\gg1$. While scale invariance is broken, a generalised scaling theory still holds provided that the dependence of observables on the dangerously irrelevant coupling is incorporated. Our work further underlines the connection between dangerously irrelevant deformations and slow equilibration.