Railway switch transport model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimalistic coupled heat and particle transport model inspired by railway switches, revealing asymmetric Onsager matrices and enhancing understanding of thermoelectric heat engines with broken time-reversal symmetry.

Contribution

It presents a simple, zero-dimensional transport model demonstrating asymmetric Onsager matrices due to time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Findings

Asymmetric Onsager matrices observed in the minimal model

Model provides insights into thermoelectric heat engines

Time-reversal symmetry breaking effects analyzed

Abstract

We propose a simple model of coupled heat and particle transport based on a zero-dimensional classical deterministic dynamics which is reminiscent of a railway switch whose action is only a function of the particle's energy. It is shown that already in the minimal three-terminal model, where the second terminal is considered as a probe with zero net particle and heat currents, one can find extremely asymmetric Onsager matrices as a consequence of time-reversal symmetry breaking of the model. This minimalistic transport model provides a better understanding of thermoelectric heat engines in the presence of time-reversal symmetry breaking.