Theory of Non-equilibrium Heat transport in anharmonic multiprobe systems at high temperatures

Abstract

We consider the problem of heat transport by vibrational modes (conduction) between Langevin thermostats connected by a central device. The latter is anharmonic and can be subject to large temperature differences and thus be out of equilibrium. We develop a self-consistent Green's function formalism to describe high-temperature and non-equilibrium transport, and derive a formula for the heat current for up to quartic anharmonicity (4th-order in the potential energy). We show the importance of including quartic terms in the anharmonic potential in order to properly describe thermal expansion and temperature dependence to leading order in anharmonicity. This formalism paves the way for accurate and efficient modeling of thermal transport in highly non-equilibrium situations beyond perturbation theory.