# Ballistic near-field heat transport in dense many-body systems

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a transition from superdiffusive to ballistic near-field heat transport in dense many-body systems, driven by changes in mode polarization, affecting thermal relaxation dynamics significantly.

## Contribution

It introduces a generalized Landauer theory to analyze heat transfer in dense systems and reveals a nonmonotonic transition between transport regimes.

## Key findings

- Transition from superdiffusive to ballistic transport in dense systems
- Change in dominant mode polarization causes the transition
- Thermal relaxation dynamics vary over three orders of magnitude

## Abstract

Radiative heat-transport mediated by near-field interactions is known to be superdiffusive in dilute, many-body systems. In this Letter we use a generalized Landauer theory of radiative heat transfer in many-body planar systems to demonstrate a nonmonotonic transition from superdiffusive to ballistic transport in dense systems. We show that such a transition is associated to a change of the polarization of dominant modes, leading to dramatically different thermal relaxation dynamics spanning over three orders of magnitude. This result could have important consequences on thermal management at nanoscale of many-body systems.