Thermodynamics and DC conductivity of 2D anisotropic fluids from axion holography

Abstract

We investigate a strongly coupled finite-density anisotropic fluid in $2+1$ dimensions dual to an asymptotically AdS black brane that is a solution of Einstein-Maxwell-Axion theory in $3+1$ dimensions. Despite the anisotropy, the fluid thermodynamic properties align with those of a conformal fluid. Moreover, we show that the fluid is stable under the increase of the anisotropy parameter. Additionally, we analyse the DC conductivity of the anisotropic fluid, showing its compatibility with momentum dissipation due to translational symmetry breaking. In the limit of very large anisotropy we find that the DC conductivity vanishes as a consequence of dimensionality reduction. We also find that a metal-insulator transition arises driven by the anisotropy.

Comments: V2: 42+1 pages, 11 figures. New result on the metal-insulator transition. References updated. Published in JHEP