2008/03/31 by Dibyendu Roy · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.77.062102
published as Phys. Rev. E 77, 062102 (2008) · 4 pages, 2 figure
arxiv created 2008/04/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Through an exact analysis using quantum Langevin dynamics, we demonstrate the crossover from ballistic to diffusive thermal transport in a harmonic chain with each site connected to Ohmic heat reservoirs. The temperatures of the two heat baths at the boundaries are specified from the beginning, whereas the temperatures of the interior heat reservoirs are determined self-consistently by demanding that in the steady state, on average, there is no heat current between any such (self-consistent) reservoir and the harmonic chain. The essence of our study is that the effective mean free path separating the ballistic regime of transport from the diffusive one emerges naturally.