2020/04/30 by Debarshi Dey, Binoy Krishna Patra · 20 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Engineering physics #Field (mathematics) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Magnetic field #Materials science #Mathematics #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Thermal #Thermodynamics #Thermoelectric effect #cond-mat.mes-hall #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.102.096011
published in Physical review. D/Physical review. D. 102(9) (American Physical Society) · 49 pages, 20figures
openalex created_date 2020/04/17 · arxiv created 2020/11/06 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/11 · arxiv updated 2020/11/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The strongly interacting partonic medium created post ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision experiments exhibits a significant temperature-gradient between the central and peripheral regions of the collisions, which in turn, is capable of inducing an electric field in the medium; a phenomenon known as Seebeck effect. The effect is quantified by the magnitude of the induced electric field per unit temperature gradient---the Seebeck coefficient (S). We study the coefficient, S, with the help of the relativistic Boltzmann transport equation in relaxation-time approximation as a function of temperature (T) and chemical potential (\ensuremathμ), wherein we find that, with current quark masses, the magnitude of S for individual quark flavors as well as that for the partonic medium decreases with T and increases with \ensuremathμ, with the electric charge of the flavor deciding the sign of S. The emergence of a strong magnetic field (B) in the noncentral collisions at heavy-ion collider experiments motivates us to study the effect of B on the Seebeck effect. The strong B affects S in multifold ways via (i) modification of phase-space due to the dimensional reduction, (ii) dispersion relation in lowest Landau level (occupation probability), and (iii) relaxation time. We find that a strong B not only decreases the magnitudes of Ss of individual species, it also flips their signs. This leads to a faster reduction of the magnitude of S of the medium than its counterpart at B=0. We then explore how the interactions among partons described in perturbative thermal QCD in the quasiparticle framework affect the Seebeck effect. The interactions indeed affect the coefficient drastically. For example, even in strong B, there is no more a flip of the sign of S for individual species and the magnitudes of S of individual species as well as that of the medium get enhanced in comparison with the current quark mass description at either B=0 or B\ensuremath≠0.