Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
Nonanomalous heat transport in a one-dimensional composite chain
1ISAC-CNR and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Section Cagliari, I-09042 Monserrato, Italy.
Abstract:
Translation-invariant low-dimensional systems are known to exhibit anomalous heat transport. However, there are systems, such as the coupled-rotor chain, where translation invariance is satisfied, yet transport remains diffusive. It has been argued that the restoration of normal diffusion occurs due to the impossibility of defining a global stretch variable with a meaningful dynamics. In this Letter, an alternative mechanism is proposed, namely, that the transition to anomalous heat transport can occur at a scale that, under certain circumstances, may diverge to infinity. To illustrate the mechanism, I consider the case of a composite chain that conserves local energy and momentum as well as global stretch, and at the same time obeys, in the continuum limit, Fourier's law of heat transport. It is shown analytically that for vanishing elasticity the stationary temperature profile of the chain is linear; for finite elasticity, the same property holds in the continuum limit.
Related Concept Videos
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanism of heat transfer
Heat Flow and Specific Heat
Heat Capacities of an Ideal Gas III

