We discuss the dc conductivity of holographic theories with translational invariance broken by a background lattice. We show that the presence of the lattice induces an effective mass for the graviton via a gravitational version of the Higgs mechanism. This allows us to obtain, at leading order in the lattice strength, an analytic expression for the dc conductivity in terms of the size of the lattice at the horizon. In locally critical theories this leads to a power law resistivity that is in agreement with an earlier field theory analysis of Hartnoll and Hofman.

• Received 8 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.071602