“More Is Different” and Sustainable Development Goals: Thermoelectricity

Abstract

The thermal Green's function formalism bridging between macroscopic observables and microscopic processes via linear response theory was established in the early 1960s, when I started my research career. I recall stimulating experiences with the help of this technique in exploring transport and thermodynamic properties of Bloch electrons in magnetic fields, especially orbital magnetism and the Hall effect, and this technique is useful for understanding narrow gap systems like Dirac and Weyl electrons, which are of current interest. Recent ongoing challenges on thermoelectricity based on the Kubo–Luttinger formula are briefly introduced; it is an important scientific issue in view of sustainable development goals that awaits contributions from condensed matter physics, where the thermal Green's function is again a powerful tool.