Thermal Transport and Non-Mechanical Forces in Metals
Statistical Mechanics
2024-01-22 v1
Abstract
We discuss contributions to the thermopower in an electron fluid. A simple argument based on Newton's second law with the pressure gradient as the force suggests that the thermopower is given by a thermodynamic derivative, viz., the entropy per particle, rather than being an independent transport coefficient. The resolution is the existence of an entropic force that results from a coupling between the mass current and the heat current in the fluid. We also discuss and clarify some aspects of a recent paper (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 102}, 214306 (2020)) that provided a method for exactly solving electronic transport equations in the low-temperature limit.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2205.06362,
title = {Thermal Transport and Non-Mechanical Forces in Metals},
author = {J. Amarel and D. Belitz and T. R. Kirkpatrick},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.06362},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
6pp, no figs