Railway switch transport model

Abstract

We propose a simple model of coupled heat and particle transport based on a zero-dimensional classical deterministic dynamics which is reminiscent of a railway switch whose action is only a function 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.

5 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Thermodynamics of Micro- and Nano-Systems Driven by Periodic Temperature Variations
• Thermoelectric efficiency of three-terminal quantum thermal machines
• Multi-terminal Thermoelectric Transport in a Magnetic Field: Bounds on Onsager Coefficients and Efficiency
• Efficiency of three-terminal thermoelectric transport under broken-time reversal symmetry
• Bound on Thermoelectric Power in a Magnetic Field within Linear Response
• Separation of heat and charge currents for boosted thermoelectric conversion
• From thermal rectifiers to thermoelectric devices
• Quantum coherent three-terminal thermoelectrics: maximum efficiency at given power output
• Power-efficiency-fluctuations trade-off in steady-state heat engines: The role of interactions
• Nanowire-based thermoelectric ratchet in the hopping regime
• Fundamental aspects of steady state heat to work conversion
• Enhancing Thermoelectric Properties Through a Three-Terminal Benzene Molecule
• Optimal performance of voltage-probe quantum heat engines
• Translationally invariant conservation laws of local Lindblad equations
• Spin and thermal current scaling at a $Y$-junction of XX spin chains