03-219 Jean-Pierre Eckmann, Emmanuel Zabey

Strange Heat Flux in (An)Harmonic Networks (244K, postscript) May 12, 03

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Abstract. We study the heat transport in systems of coupled oscillators driven out of equilibrium by Gaussian heat baths. We illustrate with a few examples that such systems can exhibit ``strange'' transport phenomena. In particular, {\em circulation} of heat flux may appear in the steady state of a system of three oscillators only. This indicates that the direction of the heat fluxes can in general not be ``guessed" from the temperatures of the heat baths. Although we primarily consider harmonic couplings between the oscillators, we explain why this strange behavior persists under weak anharmonic perturbations.

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