Nernst effect and the thermoelectric power in strongly coupled electron-phonon systems

Abstract

An understanding of high temperature superconductivity clearly requires the nature of its normal state, however the normal state of the cuprates is poorly understood. One possible explanation is the bipolaronic model where mobile, heavily phonon-dressed holes (polarons) are paired in real space. The ground state is made up of intersite singlet bipolarons where excitations can be made to triplet bipolaron and polaron bands. Based on this model I derive the Nernst coefficient and the Thermoelectric power for the cuprates. The Nernst coefficient shows an interesting interference term due to the triplet and singlet bipolaron and polaron current flow. The interference remains even when the scattering rate is independent of energy.