  We discuss a gravity dual of a charge density wave consisting of a U(1) gauge
field and two scalar fields in the background of an AdS$_4$ Schwarzschild black
hole together with an antisymmetric field (probe limit). Interactions drive the
system to a phase transition below a critical temperature. We numerically
compute the ground states characterized by modulated solutions for the gauge
potential corresponding to a dynamically generated unidirectional charge
density wave in the conformal field theory. Signatures of the holographic
density waves are retrieved by studying the dynamical response to an external
electric field. We find that this novel holographic state shares many common
features with the standard condensed matter version of charge density wave
systems.
