Bound on thermoelectric power in a magnetic field within linear response.

Abstract

For thermoelectric power generation in a multiterminal geometry, strong numerical evidence for a universal bound as a function of the magnetic-field induced asymmetry of the nondiagonal Onsager coefficients is presented. This bound implies, inter alia, that the power vanishes at least linearly when the maximal efficiency is approached. In particular, this result rules out that Carnot efficiency can be reached at finite power, which an analysis based on the second law only would, in principle, allow.