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arxiv: 2604.26949 · v1 · submitted 2026-04-29 · ✦ hep-th

Anomalous Transport and Explicit Symmetry Breaking in Holography

Ashis Tamang , Nishal Rai , Karl Landsteiner , Eugenio Megias This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-07 10:01 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ✦ hep-th
keywords anomalous transportexplicit symmetry breakingholographyChern-Simons termsKubo formulaebackreactiontransport coefficientsEinstein-Maxwell model
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The pith

Explicit symmetry breaking allows anomaly-induced transport to affect non-anomalous currents in holographic models.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

This paper examines how explicit symmetry breaking alters anomaly-related transport in a holographic gravitational model. It includes full backreaction of fields and extracts coefficients from charge and energy current correlators using Kubo formulae. The central result is that anomalies now influence transport in sectors normally unaffected by them, with the effect varying directly with the breaking mass. A sympathetic reader would care because this shows quantum anomalies can have wider reach in systems where symmetries are approximate rather than exact.

Core claim

In the presence of explicit symmetry breaking, anomaly-induced transport phenomena can extend beyond anomalous currents and affect the non-anomalous sector as well. The transport coefficients exhibit a clear dependence on the symmetry-breaking mass parameter, highlighting the interplay between quantum anomalies and explicit symmetry breaking in holographic systems.

What carries the argument

The five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell model with pure gauge and mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons terms, including full backreaction of the scalar field and gauge fields on the metric, from which transport coefficients are computed via Kubo formulae on charge and energy current correlators.

Load-bearing premise

The specific five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell model with chosen Chern-Simons terms and full backreaction faithfully captures the dual four-dimensional field theory with explicit symmetry breaking.

What would settle it

A recalculation of the charge and energy current correlators in the backreacted geometry that finds no dependence of the non-anomalous transport coefficients on the symmetry-breaking mass parameter would falsify the extension of anomaly effects.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2604.26949 by Ashis Tamang, Eugenio Megias, Karl Landsteiner, Nishal Rai.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Plot showing the dependence of the background with view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Plots of the conductivities 𝜎 𝐵 𝑤𝑣, 𝜎 𝐵 𝑤𝑎, 𝜎 𝐵 𝑤𝑤 and 𝜎 𝑉 𝑤 as a function of to 𝜇𝑣/(𝜋𝑇). We have set 𝜇𝑎/(𝜋𝑇) = 0.3 and 𝜇𝑤/(𝜋𝑇) = 0.2 view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: Plots of the chiral magnetic conductivities view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Plots of the chiral magnetic conductivities view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Plot of the chiral vortical conductivities view at source ↗
read the original abstract

We consider a holographic Einstein-Maxwell model in five dimensions with pure gauge and mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons terms to study anomaly-induced transport in the presence of explicit symmetry breaking. We include the full backreaction of the scalar field and gauge fields on the metric and compute the anomalous transport coefficients using Kubo formulae involving charge and energy current correlators. Our findings reveal that, in the presence of explicit symmetry breaking, anomaly-induced transport phenomena can extend beyond anomalous currents and affect the non-anomalous sector as well. The transport coefficients exhibit a clear dependence on the symmetry-breaking mass parameter, highlighting the interplay between quantum anomalies and explicit symmetry breaking in holographic systems.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

0 major / 3 minor

Summary. The paper studies anomaly-induced transport in a five-dimensional holographic Einstein-Maxwell model with pure gauge and mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons terms, plus a scalar field introducing explicit symmetry breaking via its mass parameter. The authors solve the fully backreacted equations of motion and compute transport coefficients from charge and energy current correlators via Kubo formulae, reporting that anomaly effects extend to the non-anomalous sector with clear dependence on the mass parameter.

Significance. If the results hold, the work is significant for demonstrating how explicit symmetry breaking enables mixing of anomaly-induced effects into non-anomalous transport through backreaction, an interplay not present in the unbroken case. This has potential implications for holographic models of QCD or condensed-matter systems with approximate symmetries. The use of full backreaction and standard Kubo formulae on the coupled system is a methodological strength.

minor comments (3)
  1. Abstract: the statement that anomaly effects 'extend beyond anomalous currents' would benefit from a brief parenthetical example of which non-anomalous coefficient is affected.
  2. Section 2 (model definition): the scalar potential and its mass parameter m should be written explicitly with the chosen value or range used in the numerics.
  3. Figure captions: include the specific values of the Chern-Simons couplings and the radial cutoff employed when extracting the Kubo formulae.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

0 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the positive assessment of our manuscript, including the recognition of its significance for demonstrating the interplay between anomaly-induced transport and explicit symmetry breaking via backreaction. The recommendation for minor revision is noted, but no specific major comments were provided in the report.

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity; derivation follows from model equations

full rationale

The paper defines a standard 5D Einstein-Maxwell action including Chern-Simons terms and a scalar mass term for explicit breaking, solves the fully backreacted equations of motion numerically or analytically, and extracts transport coefficients from Kubo formulae applied to the resulting two-point functions. No step reduces a claimed prediction to a fitted parameter by construction, nor does any load-bearing claim rest solely on self-citation of an unverified uniqueness result. The reported mass dependence of non-anomalous transport is a direct consequence of the coupled EOM rather than an input renamed as output. The computation is self-contained against the chosen holographic model.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

Only the abstract is available; no information on free parameters, axioms, or invented entities can be extracted.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5410 in / 981 out tokens · 57268 ms · 2026-05-07T10:01:31.132628+00:00 · methodology

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Reference graph

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