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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
Thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity in quartic oscillator chains
G R Lee-Dadswell1, B G Nickel, C G Gray
1Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2W1. dadswell@physics.uoguelph.ca
Abstract:
We propose a relation which predicts the low-frequency thermal conductivity of a one-dimensional (1D) system from the thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity at higher frequency. Our theory is based on the assumption that "ballistic" transport by sound waves dominates the heat transport. For a system with equal heat capacities (c(p) = c(v)) this relation is particularly simple. We test the prediction by simulating a chain of particles with quartic interparticle potentials under zero pressure conditions. As the frequency omega --> 0 the theory predicts that the energy current power spectrum diverges as omega(-1/2), not seen in previous simulations. Because we simulate very long chains to long times we do observe the crossover into this regime. The bulk viscosity of a 1D chain has been determined via simulation. It is found to be finite for our system, in contrast to the thermal conductivity which is infinite.
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