Normal Heat Conduction in a Chain with Weak Interparticle Anharmonic Potential

Abstract

We analytically study heat conduction in a chain with interparticle interaction V(x)=lambda[1-cos(x)] and harmonic on-site potential. We start with each site of the system connected to a Langevin heat bath, and investigate the case of small coupling for the interior sites in order to understand the behavior of the system with thermal reservoirs at the boundaries only. We study, in a perturbative analysis, the heat current in the steady state of the one-dimensional system with weak interparticle potential. We obtain an expression for the thermal conductivity, compare the low and high temperature regimes, and show that, as we turn off the couplings with the interior heat baths, there is a "phase transition:'' the Fourier's law holds only at high temperatures.