Heat transport in nonlinear lattices free from the Umklapp process

Abstract

We construct one-dimensional nonlinear lattices having the special property such that the Umklapp process vanishes and only the normal processes are included in the potential functions. These lattices have long-range quartic nonlinear and nearest neighbor harmonic interactions with/without harmonic on-site potential. We study heat transport in two cases of the lattices with and without harmonic on-site potential by non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. It is shown that the ballistic heat transport occurs in both cases, i.e., the scaling law $\kappa\propto N$ holds between the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ and the lattice size $N$. This result directly validates Peierls's hypothesis that only the Umklapp processes can cause the thermal resistance while the normal one do not.