Resolving the Thermal Paradox: Many-body localization or fractionalization?

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Banerjee, Saikat, Coleman, Piers
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Banerjee, Saikat
Coleman, Piers
author_facet Banerjee, Saikat
Coleman, Piers
contents Thermal measurements of heat capacity and thermal conductivity in a wide range of insulators and superconductors exhibit a ``thermal paradox": a large linear specific heat reminiscent of neutral Fermi surfaces in samples that exhibit no corresponding linear temperature coefficient to the thermal conductivity. At first sight, these observations appear to support the formation of a continuum of thermally localized many-body excitations, a form of many-body localization that would be fascinating in its own right. Here, by mapping thermal conductivity measurements onto thermal RC circuits, we argue that the development of extremely long thermal relaxation times, a ``thermal bottleneck," is likely in systems with either many-body localization or neutral Fermi surfaces due to the large ratio between the electron and phonon specific heat capacities. We present a re-evaluation of thermal conductivity measurements in materials exhibiting a thermal paradox that can be used in future experiments to deliberate between these two exciting alternatives.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_09902
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resolving the Thermal Paradox: Many-body localization or fractionalization?
Banerjee, Saikat
Coleman, Piers
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Thermal measurements of heat capacity and thermal conductivity in a wide range of insulators and superconductors exhibit a ``thermal paradox": a large linear specific heat reminiscent of neutral Fermi surfaces in samples that exhibit no corresponding linear temperature coefficient to the thermal conductivity. At first sight, these observations appear to support the formation of a continuum of thermally localized many-body excitations, a form of many-body localization that would be fascinating in its own right. Here, by mapping thermal conductivity measurements onto thermal RC circuits, we argue that the development of extremely long thermal relaxation times, a ``thermal bottleneck," is likely in systems with either many-body localization or neutral Fermi surfaces due to the large ratio between the electron and phonon specific heat capacities. We present a re-evaluation of thermal conductivity measurements in materials exhibiting a thermal paradox that can be used in future experiments to deliberate between these two exciting alternatives.
title Resolving the Thermal Paradox: Many-body localization or fractionalization?
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.09902