Bosonic thermoelectric transport and breakdown of universality

Abstract

We discuss the general principles of transport in normal phase atomic gases, comparing Bose and Fermi systems. Our study shows that two-dimensional bosonic transport is non-universal with respect to different dissipation mechanisms. Near the superfluid transition temperature Tc, a striking similarity between the fermionic and bosonic transport emerges because super-conducting (fluid) fluctuation transport for Fermi gases is dominated by the bosonic, Cooper pair component. As in fluctuation theory, one finds that the Seebeck coefficient changes sign at Tc and the Lorenz number approaches zero at Tc. Our findings appear quantitatively consistent with recent Bose gas experiments.