T-linear resistivity, optical conductivity and Planckian transport for a holographic local quantum critical metal in a periodic potential

Abstract: High $T_c$ cuprate strange metals are noted for a DC-resistivity that scales linearly with $T$ from the onset of superconductivity to the crystal melting temperature, indicative of a Planckian dissipation life time $\tau_{\hbar}\simeq \hbar /(k_B T)$. At the same time, the optical conductivity ceases to be of Drude form at high temperatures, suggesting a change of the underlying dynamics that surprisingly leaves the $T$-linear DC-resistivity unaffected. We use the AdS/CFT correspondence that describes strongly coupled, densely entangled metals to study DC thermo-electrical transport and the optical conductivities of the local quantum critical Gubser-Rocha holographic strange metal in the presence of a lattice potential, a prime candidate to compare with experiment. We find that the DC-resistivity is linear in $T$ at low temperatures for a range of lattice strengths and wavevectors, even as it transitions between different dissipative regimes. At weak lattice potential the optical conductivity evolves with increasing temperature from a Drude form to a bad-metal characterized by a mid-IR resonance without changing the DC transport, similar to that seen in cuprate strange metals. This mid-IR peak and its temperature evolution can be understood as a consequence of Umklapp hydrodynamics: hydrodynamic perturbations are Bloch modes in the presence of a lattice. At strong lattice potential an incoherent metal is realized instead where momentum conservation no longer plays a role in transport. In this regime the thermal diffusivity can be explained by Planckian dissipation originating in universal microscopic chaos, similar to holographic metals with strong homogeneous momentum relaxation. The charge diffusivity does not submit to this chaos explanation, even though the continuing linear-in-$T$ DC resistivity saturates to an apparent universal slope, numerically equal to a Planckian rate.