Some properties of the thermal conductivity of chains of oscillators.
In order to search for nontrivial properties of the thermal conductivity with possible applications in the mechanism of heat flow control, we address the detailed analytical study of simple microscopic models. We investigate harmonic chains of oscillators with alternate masses and thermal baths at the boundaries only, and show that the heat flow decays as the inverse of the square of the mass difference, in contrast with the homogeneous chain, where it decays with the inverse of the mass. We recall some results for the chain with self-consistent inner reservoirs, another model with similar behavior, in order to show that it may be a general property.
Pereira
Emmanuel
E
Departamento de Física-ICEx, UFMG, CP 702, Belo Horizonte, MG 30.161-970, Brazil. emmanuel@fisica.ufmg.br
Solha
Romero B
RB