Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 33: Poster II

DY 33.44: Poster

Thursday, March 14, 2013, 17:00–19:00, Poster C

Strong bounds on Onsager coefficients and efficiency for three terminal thermoelectric transport in a magnetic field — •Kay Brandner¹, Keiji Saito², and Udo Seifert¹ — ¹II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany — ²Department of Physics, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan 223-8522

For thermoelectric transport in the presence of a magnetic field that breaks time-reversal symmetry, a strong bound on the Onsager coefficients is derived within a general set-up using three terminals. Asymmetric Onsager coefficients lead to a maximum efficiency substantially smaller than the Carnot efficiency reaching only η_C/4 in the limit of strong asymmetry. Related bounds are derived for efficiency at maximum power, which can become larger than the Curzon-Ahlborn value η_C/2, and for a cooling device. Our approach reveals that in the presence of reversible currents the standard analysis based on the positivity of entropy production is incomplete without considering the role of current conservation explicitly.