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General relativity and the cuprates

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Abstract

We add a periodic potential to the simplest gravitational model of a superconductor and compute the optical conductivity. In addition to a superfluid component, we find a normal component that has Drude behavior at low frequency followed by a power law fall-off. Both the exponent and coefficient of the power law are temperature independent and agree with earlier results computed above T c. These results are in striking agreement with measurements on some cuprates. We also find a gap Δ = 4.0 T c, a rapidly decreasing scattering rate, and “missing spectral weight” at low frequency, all of which also agree with experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, U.S.A

    Gary T. Horowitz & Jorge E. Santos

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  1. Gary T. Horowitz
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  2. Jorge E. Santos
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Correspondence to Jorge E. Santos.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1302.6586

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Horowitz, G.T., Santos, J.E. General relativity and the cuprates. J. High Energ. Phys. 2013, 87 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2013)087

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