title: Railway switch transport model.
abstract: We propose a simple model of coupled heat and particle transport based on zero-dimensional classical deterministic dynamics, which is reminiscent of a railway switch whose action is a function only of the particle's energy. It is shown that already in the minimal three-terminal model, where the second terminal is considered as a probe with zero net particle and heat currents, one can find extremely asymmetric Onsager matrices as a consequence of time-reversal symmetry breaking of the model. This minimalistic transport model provides a better understanding of thermoelectric heat engines in the presence of time-reversal symmetry breaking.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. martin.horvat@fmf.uni-lj.si
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horvat
authors.forename: Tomaž
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Prosen
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benenti
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Casati
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004735:Energy Transfer; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013816:Thermodynamics