We argue that Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity provides the minimal holographic dual for Lifshitz-type field theories with anisotropic scaling and dynamical exponent z. First we show that Lifshitz spacetimes are vacuum solutions of HL gravity, without need for additional matter. Then we perform holographic renormalization of HL gravity, and show how it reproduces the full structure of the z = 2 anisotropic Weyl anomaly in dual field theories in 2 + 1 dimensions, while its minimal relativistic gravity counterpart yields only one of two independent central charges in the anomaly.

We consider general black hole solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory that are holographically dual to conformal field theories at finite charge density with nonvanishing magnetic fields and local magnetisation currents, which generically break translation invariance explicitly. We show that the thermoelectric DC conductivity of the field theory can be obtained by solving a system of generalised Stokes equations on the black hole horizon. For various examples, including Q-lattices and one-dimensional lattices, we solve the Stokes equations explicitly and obtain expressions for the DC conductivity in terms of the solution at the black hole horizon.

We show that holographic renormalization of relativistic gravity in asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes naturally reproduces the structure of gravity with anisotropic scaling: The holographic counterterms induced near anisotropic infinity take the form of the action for gravity at a Lifshitz point, with the appropriate value of the dynamical critical exponent z. In the particular case of 3 + 1 bulk dimensions and z = 2 asymptotic scaling near infinity, we find a logarithmic counterterm, related to anisotropic Weyl anomaly of the dual CFT, and show that this counterterm reproduces precisely the action of conformal gravity at a z = 2 Lifshitz point in 2 + 1 dimensions, which enjoys anisotropic local Weyl invariance and satisfies the detailed balance condition. We explain how the detailed balance is a consequence of relations among holographic counterterms, and point out that a similar relation holds in the relativistic case of holography in AdS 5 . Upon analytic continuation, analogous to the relativistic case studied recently by Maldacena, the action of conformal gravity at the z = 2 Lifshitz point features in the ground-state wavefunction of a gravitational system with an interesting type of spatial anisotropy.