The physicists found that if electron transport alone is taken into account, the cuprates’ Lorenz number – their ratio of thermal conductivity to electrical conductivity divided by temperature – approaches the value predicted by the Wiedemann-Franz law. The team suggest that other factors, such as lattice vibrations (or phonons), which are not included in the Hubbard model, could be responsible for discrepancies observed in experiments on strongly correlated materials that make it appear as if the law does not apply. Their results could help physicists interpret these experimental observations and could ultimately lead to a better understanding of how strongly correlated systems might be employed in applications such as data processing and quantum computing.
The team now plans to build on the result by exploring other transport channels such as thermal Hall effects. “This will deepen our understanding of transport theories in strongly correlated materials,” Wang tells Physics World.
The present study is published in Science.
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