Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Park, Doyoon, Peng, Yihang, Deng, Jie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16123
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914569678487552
author Park, Doyoon
Peng, Yihang
Deng, Jie
author_facet Park, Doyoon
Peng, Yihang
Deng, Jie
contents Thermal conductivity is a fundamental material property that plays a crucial role in understanding the dynamics and evolution of planetary interiors. Despite its importance, the thermal conductivity of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$ remains unknown. Here, we calculate the lattice thermal conductivities of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$ using the Green-Kubo method based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations driven by two machine learning potentials (MLPs) constructed from the SCAN and PBEsol exchange-correlation functionals, with $\textit{ab initio}$-level accuracy. To demonstrate our methodology, we also compute thermal conductivities using the phonon quasiparticle approach for comparison. Overall, the Green-Kubo method predicts up to 119 % higher thermal conductivity with a temperature dependence close to $T^{-1}$, as it fully captures diffusion-like phonons at high temperatures that are missed by the phonon quasiparticle approach. The 19 % reduction in thermal conductivity across the phase transition from seifertite to the pyrite-type phase suggests the potential formation of a thermally insulating layer in the mantle of super-Earths.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_16123
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermal conductivity of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$: A comparative study
Park, Doyoon
Peng, Yihang
Deng, Jie
Materials Science
Thermal conductivity is a fundamental material property that plays a crucial role in understanding the dynamics and evolution of planetary interiors. Despite its importance, the thermal conductivity of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$ remains unknown. Here, we calculate the lattice thermal conductivities of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$ using the Green-Kubo method based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations driven by two machine learning potentials (MLPs) constructed from the SCAN and PBEsol exchange-correlation functionals, with $\textit{ab initio}$-level accuracy. To demonstrate our methodology, we also compute thermal conductivities using the phonon quasiparticle approach for comparison. Overall, the Green-Kubo method predicts up to 119 % higher thermal conductivity with a temperature dependence close to $T^{-1}$, as it fully captures diffusion-like phonons at high temperatures that are missed by the phonon quasiparticle approach. The 19 % reduction in thermal conductivity across the phase transition from seifertite to the pyrite-type phase suggests the potential formation of a thermally insulating layer in the mantle of super-Earths.
title Thermal conductivity of seifertite and pyrite-type SiO$_2$: A comparative study
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16123